Before I discovered the notification bot thread, I was still replying to my quoted replies. How I did it back then was to enable notification for each of the threads that I last visited. Every new comment that dropped there, I always got notifications about it, and when I went back to the threads, I checked to see if I was mentioned or not. Sometimes I also found some interesting new comments that dropped under the thread, which I might pick up on by either asking questions or throwing more light on the discussion. Another thing I usually do is search my name in the search section every 24 hours to check if I was mentioned by any member or something came up with my name.
To be honest, this notification bot is really helpful and has reduced the stress of searching and doing all that other manual checking stuff. I believe there are a lot of people who are still aware of the notification bot, and a few who are aware don't like making use of Telegram and, as such, won't want to create one because of that.
Although this has its backlash, some merits sources will not hand out merits to you if you challenge their opinions, that is why some users prefer to lick the ass of others maybe to be in their good book for merits.Pardon me for a slight off topic
We are all entitled to our own different opinions, and I don't think going against someone based on your own understanding is enough reason for them not to give you some merit if you deserve it. There are actually polite ways of telling someone they are wrong without attaching some insult to it, and when such is done, no harm can come with it.