The only notification thing I can see in Preferences is to send an email when a member you have previously marked as a friend posts. This is another third-party requirement/unnecessary step. I was thinking more in terms of clicking on follow the thread and, if necessary, clicking a notifications icon whenever I log on to the forum.
I toggled "Send me an email when a new post to a forum, thread, or by a user within my Follow Lists is created" to yes in my preferences. It seems to have worked, because I got a notification for your latest message by e-mail. To follow a thread, you have to click the bookmark symbol next to "Thread Options", top left of the thread.
A reply window with all the necessary formatting options present rather than having a bare-bones window and a "full editor" window would be good too. Being able to quote just a specific piece of text rather than the entire post . . .
OK, some things can be made easier, but I would sooner book them under QoL (less mouse movement/clicks) then under missing functionality.
