how to automatically be notified about forum 'replies'

I keep missing posts that people have replied to me, or quoted me. Is it possible to set up automatic notification, rather than having to prescribe to each thread?
Apologies if I'm being stupid.

Just above the first message in the thread you should see a menu bar, with the first link being "thread tools". Click, and the last option on that menu should be "Subscribe to this thread". Click that, and then fill out the options. One of those options will be to receive email updates.