I don't have email notifications. I just have on-site ones, with the bell, like brownrexx. I don't have it set to get notified of new threads I participate in (just mentions and quotes).

You can subscribe to a topic through your tool box which is in the upper left hand corner where the wrench is. Click on the wrench and you will see the first option is to subscribe. Check it off and you are good to go as long as you have also done as above and set things for email notifications.