user11483: Seems that this site does not offer notifications when there is a new answer to your question or a topic that one is following. Is that really so? 

user254: I think you can't "follow" a topic, can you? Is there a UI element which lets you do that?

But you will get a notification:

When someone answers a question you posted
When someone comments, underneath anything (question or answer) that you posted
When someone edits anything (question or answer) that you posted
When someone replies to a previous comment you made, by including @OPL in their comment


Notifications appear in the toolbar at the top of the page, when you next visit any page of the network:

That notification icon ("inbox") becomes highlighted (i.e. a different color), and if you click on it you see a list of all recent notifications.

I think you can see a history of all notifications (from all sites) here (but each user can only see their own notifications, so that link will only work for you).

You can also get these notifications sent to you by email -- to enable that, edit your user profile:

Edit Profile & Settings ...
... Edit Email Settings ...
... Inbox: Answers to your questions, comments, chat notifications, and more

So, as well as via your StackExchange "inbox", your notifications can be delivered via email: weekly, daily, or every three hours.

Perhaps by "following a topic" you meant 'marking it as a "favorite"'.
I think maybe there's some "notification" when a favorite topic changes, but not the same kind of notification (and maybe no email notification) -- see:

How do favorite questions work?
Feature Request: Providing Notification for favorite questions
When Do I get favorite notification?
and more generally results found containing favorite notification


11483: <p>Seems that this site does not offer notifications when there is a new answer to your question or a topic that one is following. Is that really so? </p>
 254: <p>I think you can't "follow" a topic, can you? Is there a UI element which lets you do that?</p>

<hr>

<p>But you will get a notification:</p>

<ul>
<li>When someone <em>answers</em> a question you posted</li>
<li>When someone <em>comments</em>, underneath anything (question or answer) that you posted</li>
<li>When someone <em>edits</em> anything (question or answer) that you posted</li>
<li>When someone <em>replies</em> to a previous comment you made, by including <code>@OPL</code> in their comment</li>
</ul>

<hr>

<p>Notifications appear in the toolbar at the top of the page, <em>when you next visit any page of the network</em>:</p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/PpCwF.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/PpCwF.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>That notification icon ("inbox") becomes highlighted (i.e. a different color), and if you click on it you see a list of all recent notifications.</p>

<hr>

<p>I think you can see a history of all notifications (from all sites) <a href="https://stackexchange.com/users/11052751/opl?tab=inbox">here</a> (but each user can only see their own notifications, so that link will only work for you).</p>

<hr>

<p>You can also get these notifications sent to you by email -- to enable that, edit your user profile:</p>

<ul>
<li>Edit Profile &amp; Settings ...</li>
<li>... Edit Email Settings ...</li>
<li>... Inbox: Answers to your questions, comments, chat notifications, and more</li>
</ul>

<p>So, as well as via your StackExchange "inbox", your notifications can be delivered via email: weekly, daily, or every three hours.</p>

<hr>

<p>Perhaps by "following a topic" you meant 'marking it as a "favorite"'.</p>

<p>I think maybe there's some "notification" when a favorite topic changes, but not the same kind of notification (and maybe no email notification) -- see:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/53585/139866">How do favorite questions work?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/69886/139866">Feature Request: Providing Notification for favorite questions</a></li>
<li><a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/171722/139866">When Do I get favorite notification?</a></li>
<li>and more generally <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/search?q=favorite+notification">results found containing favorite notification</a></li>
</ul>
