Why don't website alerts clear when the site comes back up?

Hi,

I always thought there was a strange delay in how long it takes for a website alert to clear after we fix the problem.  I found out yesterday that the same amount of time a website takes to alert, is what it will take for it to clear.

If I have a website set to check every 10 minutes, and clear after 4 failures, it will also then not clear until 4 passes.  Does that seem idiotic to anyone else or is it just me?

Why would I want a website to show down for 30+ minutes after I fix it and it comes back up?  Now I have to sit and wait for half an hour for the alert to clear.  And, if it comes up, and then goes down again before the original alert has cleared, I won't get a new alert and won't know that there's another problem.

This just seems like a really bad design.  At least for servers I can choose if I want it to clear immediately or not.  For website I don't have that option so I have no way to force it to clear faster.