You just need to visit the forum section and click "Notify" in the upper right corner and you'll get notified when new Threads are created in that forum and not when a user replies to posts.
To sort the forum thread click "Last post". https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=159.0;sort=last_post
However, you'll be notified only once via email and until you don't visit that forum section, the second notification won't be sent. I hope this helps
I am not sure if MZ said the same thing.
I guess that link was for my session and hence it failed. Here is a screenshot which explains the procedure:
I took this image for the "bitcoin discussion" forum. Similarly, go to the Announcement (Altcoin) board and click "Notify" to be notified for new threads that are created.