What does "following" entail?

[Cosmic Commando]

I got my first follower the other day! I didn't even know this existed on the new boards, but I don't know exactly what it does. Does it highlight your followed posts when you view a thread? Does it send an alert every time someone posts?

 

[Monty]

If you go to your "Inbox", there's a tab that says "Your News Feed". That shows you posts by people you follow. I don't see much use in it, but it's a feature on the forums.