Thanks for your questions! Here's my attempt at answering them.

Your usernode is basically just confirmation that you "exist" on the site. Kind of like a placeholder. Important for the technical aspects of the site, but not for the user (unless they don't have one and then they can't participate).

If you are following blogs or forums that you participated in (wrote or commented on), go to your user page and click on "track" at the top. That tracks all the things that you participated in and whether or not there is a new post.

If you didn't create or comment on the forum or blog, but still want to follow it, you've got a couple options (though I admit they could be better).

If you are interested in other blogs, the best way to do it is to click on "blogs" at the top of the page and click on "most comments." That will take you to the most active blog posts.

If you're interested in forums, just go to the forums, click on the subject (year to year, things to do, etc.,). Each topic discussion will have the number of comments (including the number that are new).

If you can't remember your password, click "forgot your password" (or something very similar) at the top of the page next to sign in and join us.

Let me know if that doesn't make any sense, you have more questions or you can't find the buttons that I mentioned on the page.

Thank you!

Sarah
site editor