I checked the FAQ and didn’t see anything about this, so:
I have automatic e-mail notification checked in my preferences, so that if I reply to a thread I’ll get informed about any answers. However, I don’t actually get notified. I figured that this was a feature that wasn’t working, and that I could always manually check, and didn’t think any more about it.
However, there was a thread (I think in GQ) about how people went about using the boards, and two things struck me.
1 - Most people said they did a “vanity search” to find out if there were any replies to threads in which they had posted. This led me to believe that e-mail notification wasn’t working for them, either. But what is a “vanity search,” and how do I do one?
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- Someone asked why people weren’t getting e-mail notification about replies. This led me to believe that it works for some people. So, does it? Does it work if you check the box below the quick reply window, but not if it is in your user preferences? Or does it work randomly?
Subscribe to this thread, for something I haven’t posted in, has always worked just fine for me, for what that’s worth. (Probably nothing!)
Thanks!
JtP
A vanity search is doing a search with your username as a keyword in the search. Generally if someone quotes you, your name appears, and of course if someone mentions you by name you’ll also get a hit.
You can also just search for threads you’ve posted to by putting your username in the username field instead of the keyword field. But I don’t think this is really considered a “vanity search”
I don’t know about email notification - I don’t use this as my default as it would flood my inbox - I just subscribe to particular threads I’m particulary interested in.
Subscribing to a thread is the same as signing up for e-mail notification.
There’s an option in user cp to use email notification by default. Presumably this automatically sends email about new posts in all threads you’ve participated in, as opposed to explicitly subscribing to individual threads. That’s the option I never use.
Do you mean that the default mode is that the server sends you an email every time someone responds to a thread that you’ve posted to? If you post to a popular thread, do you get 50 emails? Isn’t this taxing on the server? (I obviously dont’ use this feature.)
I use that option, but it doesn’t work all of the time. When I open a thread, I usually will use the quick reply box at the bottom of the page. Sometimes - but not always - the email notification box is checked. Very weird. But apparently, it’s not a bug (at least that’s the impression I got when I asked about it before).
Personally, I’d love clarification on this. If I have that box checked in my CP, then I should get an email for every thread to which I post - unless, of course, I’ve intentionally unchecked that box for a particular thread. At least that’s how I thought it was supposed to work.
But it doesn’t quite work like that for all threads - some I’ll get emails for, some I won’t.
In fact, when you do get an email notification, the email states that you won’t get any more emails for that thread until you return:
However, this also isn’t true - I’ll get several for a particular thread before I get a chance to get back to it. So yes, it can fill up your mailbox.
BTW, porcupine, thanks for the clarification of “vanity search.” I thought I was doing this, but all I was doing was putting my username in the “username” field. 
PS: I have “email notification” checked for this thread - it was checked when I opened the thread. So for this particular thread (or maybe it works by forum?), it worked, as I have this set to default.
[list=A][li]“Subscribe to thread” and “Email notification” are supposed to work exactly the same way.[/li][li]There have been complaints that even if you choose “Email notification” as the default setting in the user CP, the box is not checked by default when you post a reply. Please note that you only need to check the box once per thread.[/li][li]“Email notification” means that you will get an e-mail the first time someone posts in that thread, but only one e-mail until you visit the board the next time. Then after you leave the board you will get one other e-mail if there are one or several posts after you leave the board and before you return to the board.[/li][li]The exact meaning of “leaving the board” and “returning to the board” is probably determined by Logging in / Logging out. But several people have complained that they get more than one e-mail / get no e-mails / the feature doesn’t work right.[/li][/list=A]
Since the server is overworked we recommend that people not depend on this feature. Instead keep your popular threads in bookmarks, or, if you absolutely must, subscribe to them but don’t expect the e-mail.
P.S. This is going in the FAQ.
One comment regarding D above - I never actually “log out” of the board. I may close the window, but I never have to log back in (presumably because the server recognizes my IP?).
You don’t have to log back in because your username/password are stored within “cookies” on your client machine.
Thanks, Arnold, and everyone else who replied! I’ll just keep doing this manually, at least until the hamsters get upgraded. (Will there be more hamsters, or will there be guinea pigs or rabbits or another larger rodent?)
In the meantime, I’ll bask in the fact that my question made the FAQ. It’s probably the closest I’ll ever get to threadspotting. 