First I changed my profile to show newest posts on TOP when looking at a thread - so I don't have to scroll down unless I want to see older posts.
If visiting the forum in my browser - I use the 'New Posts' link to see what's new... I found I need to leave that page open - and open any posts I want in a new tab - or somehow they vanish after a couple of peeks.
If just a few threads with new posts - I'll use the links on right for 'Recent Discussions' - but that list easily gets overwhelmed.
Any threads I have replied on let me know via email when a new post is made...
And to complete the monitoring - the sites RSS feed goes to my Thunderbird account to show me updates... Reminds me to come back over and check for more...
Easy to spend lots of time if you want... I try to keep up as much as I can - but still have a full time job - besides my RV.