diff --git a/Echo.php b/Echo.php
index f5e87d06f..5db62d945 100644
--- a/Echo.php
+++ b/Echo.php
@@ -109,6 +109,9 @@ $wgJobClasses['EchoNotificationJob'] = 'EchoNotificationJob';
 $wgAutoloadClasses['MWEchoNotificationEmailBundleJob'] = $dir . 'jobs/NotificationEmailBundleJob.php';
 $wgJobClasses['MWEchoNotificationEmailBundleJob'] = 'MWEchoNotificationEmailBundleJob';
 
+// Deferred execution
+$wgAutoloadClasses['EchoDeferredMarkAsReadUpdate'] = $dir . '/includes/DeferredMarkAsReadUpdate.php';
+
 // API
 $wgAutoloadClasses['ApiEchoNotifications'] = $dir . 'api/ApiEchoNotifications.php';
 $wgAPIMetaModules['notifications'] = 'ApiEchoNotifications';
diff --git a/controller/NotificationController.php b/controller/NotificationController.php
index 68b7393b2..3233d5c23 100644
--- a/controller/NotificationController.php
+++ b/controller/NotificationController.php
@@ -18,6 +18,13 @@ class EchoNotificationController {
 	 */
 	static protected $userWhitelist;
 
+	/**
+	 * Queue's that failed formatting and marks them as read at end of request.
+	 *
+	 * @var DeferredMarkAsReadUpdate|null
+	 */
+	static protected $markAsRead;
+
 	/**
 	 * Format the notification count with Language::formatNum().  In addition, for large count,
 	 * return abbreviated version, e.g. 99+
@@ -330,12 +337,30 @@ class EchoNotificationController {
 			restore_error_handler();
 		}
 
-		if ( $res ) {
-			return $res;
-		} else {
-			return Xml::tags( 'span', array( 'class' => 'error' ),
-				wfMessage( 'echo-error-no-formatter', $event->getType() )->escaped() );
+		if ( $res === '' ) {
+			self::failFormatting( $event, $user );
 		}
+
+		return $res;
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * Event has failed to format for the given user.  Mark it as read so
+	 * we do not continue to notify them about this broken event.
+	 *
+	 * @param EchoEvent $event
+	 * @param User $user
+	 */
+	protected static function failFormatting( EchoEvent $event, $user ) {
+		// FIXME: The only issue is that the badge count won't be up to date
+		// till you refresh the page.  Probably we could do this in the browser
+		// so that if the formatting is empty and the notif is unread, put it
+		// in the auto-mark-read API
+		if ( self::$markAsRead === null ) {
+			self::$markAsRead = new EchoDeferredMarkAsReadUpdate();
+			DeferredUpdates::addUpdate( self::$markAsRead );
+		}
+		self::$markAsRead->add( $event, $user );
 	}
 
 	/**
diff --git a/includes/DeferredMarkAsReadUpdate.php b/includes/DeferredMarkAsReadUpdate.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9b02e8cc8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/includes/DeferredMarkAsReadUpdate.php
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+<?php
+
+/**
+ * Mark event notifications as read at the end of a request.  Used to queue up
+ * individual events to mark due to formatting failures or other uses.
+ */
+class EchoDeferredMarkAsReadUpdate implements DeferrableUpdate {
+	/**
+	 * @var array
+	 */
+	protected $events = array();
+
+	/**
+	 * @param EchoEvent $event
+	 * @param User $user
+	 */
+	public function add( EchoEvent $event, User $user ) {
+		$uid = $user->getId();
+		if ( isset( $this->events[$uid] ) ) {
+			$this->events[$uid]['eventIds'][] = $event->getId();
+		} else {
+			$this->events[$uid] = array(
+				'user' => $user,
+				'eventIds' => array( $event->getId() ),
+			);
+		}
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * Mark's all queue'd notifications as read.
+	 * Satisfies DeferrableUpdate interface
+	 */
+	public function doUpdate() {
+		foreach ( $this->events as $data ) {
+			MWEchoNotifUser::newFromUser( $data['user'] )->markRead( $data['eventIds'] );
+		}
+		$this->events = array();
+	}
+}