My 2 cents:
1)As I understand it there are three (what is the fourth?) methods of
presenting info to the users:
a)Notifications: appear on the screen, don't steal input focus,
clicking them clicks the background.
b)indicators on the top bar: invite and allow action. always visible.
c)Status data on the sidebar: users look for them.
2)I agree that notifications should not steal input focus. However,
they will (and are meant to ) get the attention of the user.
How about this Idea:
After a customisable delay(say 2sec) of being displayed the mouse over
behaviour of the notification changes to show two buttons: one to
carry out whatever actions are associated with the notification the
other to banish the notification.
The delay will prevent the accidental clicking of notifications.
The banish button will help get rid of distracting notifications.
See the attached mockup
