In the world of programming - technically anything is possible if you have enough time and money.
I don't know if this has ever been brought up at the developer's site (for
Snitz Forums 2000). Yes it would be possible, but I figure that most people just keep refreshing the
Active Topics page.
I'm also thinking that afterwhile you may find it annoying. Think if people were posting messages every couple of minutes - you might hear that sound everytime you click to another page. After a couple of times, you may want it to stop and go away.
Then there's people who are doing "research" at work, I'm sure they want to be courteous to their fellow co-workers and not have their browser "ding" at them everytime they visit this site. We wouldn't anyone to get into trouble.