There are two ways to become reminded of threads, so you don't lose them.
Favorites are my "favorite". It does more, but to activate it, you have to do two things.
One, toggle it on the bottom right of a thread, to "mark as favorite" and then two, go to my home and make sure all favorites are e mailed to you.
Post reminders don't do as much. There are four little icons under and to the left of each post. If you hover over them, they pop up what they are. The one with the little finger tied is a post reminder. This is also where the "alert moderator" function resides.
Please check out this helpful link to help you:
http://www.newfarm.org/talk/help/mainindex.html
Jen