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Not that I know of. If you're anticipating a reply, you generally just have to remember to check.

Conversations between individuals are de-emphasized in exchange for content and a variety of ideas. I think the effect is good.

I agree. What you said actually just happened. I remembered that need to check for possible answers to this to reloaded the page and came back here. I guess it's working for everybody.

I use Notifio. And while it still works, it's no longer being worked on and will probably stop working soon.

I don't believe there are any 'push' notifications, but you can use the "threads" link on the top bar to see each of your comment threads and scan for replies.

Not ideal, but it's still better than either remembering to check the discussion itself.