Nobody told me how overwhelming it gets after joining a few popular novel forums. You start by turning everything on—email alerts, in-app pings, maybe even Discord webhooks. Then the flood begins. The main update thread for a series like 'Lord of the Mysteries' might get a dedicated post for each new chapter, but the comment replies generate hundreds of notifications unless you mute the thread. I learned to create custom alerts only for original posts by the uploader or a specific translator group.
The tricky part is consistency across platforms. The forum's push notification might say 'Chapter 147 is out!' but the email has the chapter summary and translator notes. Sometimes the email is faster, sometimes the app is. I missed three chapters of 'Reverend Insanity' once because I'd turned off emails, assuming the app was reliable, and then my phone had a silent update. Now I keep one primary channel per series. Also, forums often have a 'read' flag that resets if you view on a different device, so your notification badge stays uncleared. Drives me nuts.