hm. it's not a matter of "can we" it's a matter of "will we". mods need a guaranteed way to get ahold of members. that's PM's. so, no, you can't disable them.
as for e-mails... wha??? now, I'm confused. you want to be subscribed to threads, but not get e-mails? that's what subscribing to a thread IS. it's getting e-mails every time someone replies. big PITA as far as I'm concerned, but meh. as an alternative, if you just want a list of stuff you're keepin' track of, theads are bookmarkable.
