So If I'm understanding you all correctly... If I want to track threads that I am involved in, I should activate the subscription to those threads. And then when I want to see what's up, I should look into my subcribed threads rather than "my posts". That way, I can unsubscribe to threads I don't care about anymore and they will not be on the list any longer.
I kind of had a feeling that it was a problem with the way I was managing things rather than a systemic problem. thanks.
By the way, do I change the subscription setting by going into Settings & Options / Edit Options / Default Thread Subscription Mode / then choose one of the settings other than "do not subscribe". Just confiming that I did it right.