finding my way in the forum

Well written! Agree, very clumsy site design.

The only work-around I've found is going to "My Profile" (at the top of the Community page), then scroll down and any posts you've made are there. You can see the "Replies" count; if you see the count is up, you have to click on a particular post to see new replies.

hth

Hi @rbtvgo , 

  I’m dropping a screenshot here of the My Settings area you can tweek if you want.  The way threads appear how you’d like.  You can also get alerts to a post you’ve made, or subscribe to a post.  Within a post you’ll see some dots above. That says Topic Options for that thread, and you can click on that I believe to subscribe to get notifications on new posts added to that thread.  I don’t, cuz’ there’s a lot of posts in some threads every day.  But for me, I check in throughout the day and then go to All Discussions and if it’s one I I hadn’t read yet, the topic title is in bold.  Basically for me I just sort of tinkered around.

Settings

@rbtvgo 

Somethings to check to see how your “settings” are configured for receiving notifications -

Go to your ”Settings” (top of page after you are signed in)

Go to “Preferences”  - Make sure that you have the choice checked that reads:

Automatically subscribe me to topics or reviews I participate in

Don’t forget to SAVE before you leave the page

Then Go to “Subscriptions and Notifications”  and select the way you want notifications to be sent - like in email.  I can’t give you the specifics because I don’t use email for notices.  I just skim the topics and replies on the home page for any I might want to respond to - 

I've noticed it doesn't seem to allow direct private messaging.