I'm a way low-tech person, but what I do is subscribe to a thread in which I care what other people have to say in response to my post. That way there's a notice when you arrive at AW and go to Settings, telling you a subscribed thread has a new message.
Most threads die down and there's no need to unsubscribe because they're inactive. Ones that go on long after my interest has waned, I unsubscribe.
How do I subscribe, you ask? At the top of the thread's first post, Thread Tools has a dropdown menu that includes Subscribe to Thread.
Maryn, who figured some stuff out