Is there any way I can delete forum mentions any faster? I log in once in awhile but I really don't like seeing all the events at my sidebar.

Not that I know of. :c If you get a lot of group pings though you can mute them to prevent getting future pings without leaving the group by going to each group page and clicking 'mute ping notifications'.

Faster than what, exactly? I just use the icon at the top left of the forum mentions tab to delete them all at once, personally.