tracking responses to your responses

[Christo et Doctrinae]

I'm pretty sure that's what subscribing to a thread does (although I haven't ever done it; I've only just discovered how to subscribe to the forums I co-moderate!)

Yes, subscribing to a thread makes it easy to track what you've posted to, and you only get one email notification when others respond. When you view that thread, it resets and you will get an email to notify you that people have responded since you last viewed/posted-to the thread.

Forum subscriptions is similar.

If you want to unsubscribe from a thread at any point, there are a few options, but the one I like to use is to scan down to the bottom of the page after I've read the posts, and click "unsubscribe from this thread." Sometimes they change topics and I'm no longer interested in reading; that's when I do this.

HTH