Hey Christine,
Sorry you're experiencing challenges with the new site. We're all frustrated by this, but what you are describing, the ability to set email preferences to be notified when someone responds to your post, IS functionality we are supposed to have, but its currently one we cannot get to due to one of the glitches you referenced. I've been working with the vendor trying to identify why this is happening and how we can get this resolved as quickly as possible. I share the frustration that those in the Qrew have about this topic.
If you go to your avatar > My Settings > Follows and Notifications, this is where you are supposed to be able to set up your notifications. It's going to error out on you and that's the issue we've raised with our platform vendor (not Quickbase). I'd be happy to hop on a call with you and answer any other questions you have about Qrew Discussions, let me know if this interests you and I can email you directly.
Ben