Dave something goofy is happening lately for me.
I had 2 new threads posted Jan 17 & Jan 21 that did not show on my watch list. The only reason I found them is because I went to start a new thread in the Container Forum.

The thread "gnats and how I kill them" in Containers forum
The thread "More containers at my favorite nursery.......Sunriver Gardens" in Containers forum

And the same thing happened today on the Sedum Forum
The new post did not show on my watch list.
The thread "Sedum Chat and Photos for 2013" in Sedum forum

Both of these Forums are on my watch list.

Lynn- Are you saying that the "yes" didn't appear? Or that the thread itself didn't come up?

It didn't show up on my home page with the red yes.
I felt really bad that I didn't see it until days later. I always check my list of watched forum.

A thread doesn't automatically watch for you unless you have your preferences set to autowatch.

Watching a forum only means that the forum itself will appear on the front page.

Both of those Forums are set for auto watch. They have always in the past shown when a new thread was started, by showing the red YES.

It is just not you Lynn, some how mine also got reset to un watch. On reading your post I went and checked. For a dead forum, I have got a lot of catching up to do. The containers one, other one was showing up.
Regards,
Arif.

Mine are are still marked as being watched.

Gremlins in the server.
I put the containers one back to watch .
Regards,
Arif.

I wondered why we hadn't seen you there for awhile Arif.

I wonder what else has reset it self, my life is pretty quiet. Koppen thread, plant ID, succulents and one Tee's . I will have to recheck, if only I remember where all I have been.
Good night Lynn
Regards,
Arif.

Go to your Profile Arif, and look at 'View posts made by Arif'.

Good night Arif. May your dreams be filled with visions of beautiful plants.

You can also click on "Your Posts" in the menubar at the very top of the page here.

Oh my, when was that added Dave. That sure saves steps.

It's been there for a while.

Observant is not my middle name, nor my first name, obviously.

Is there an explanation for why my forum watcher wasn't working?

I have reviewed the system and am reasonable certain that there is no bug here. My only guess is that it was new and had a red yes and you clicked some point in the past and that caused the red yes to go away, but you never went into those threads.

Simply accessing the forum is sufficient to mark it as read. And once you visit the forum, then the forum is now going to show "No" under New until a new post is made therein.

I will keep a closer eye on it. Thank you Dave.

I understand the Site Preferences for
- - Automatically "Watch" threads that you start?
- - Automatically "Watch" threads that you reply to?

I understand marking individual forums "Watch Forum" so that they show up on my Home page as Watched or Favorite forums.

They turn red and say "Yes" when any post is made to that forum after I last visited.

Is there any option or preference that could mark a forum to auto-watch any new thread that is created in that forum? So that I would have to UNwatch those threaqds rto get them out of my "Watched Thread window?

If you do add such a feature as "autowatch all new threads in Watched forums", it should probably have part of its name allude to "for very very lazy members". The red Yes is really sufficient to get me to check the forum and find the new threads.