What is the purpose of thread following?

For each thread within a discussion forum, you can find a heart icon to turn on or off following of that thread.

1 Turn on thread following.

You can just save the discussions you want to return to in the Favourites. You can find all your favourite discussions in

The Information System Discussion forums Favourites

1 The "Favourites" section contains an overview of all discussion forums that are marked with a heart icon.

2 Number of new contributions.