Can we have a way of following a thread of interest without saving it to my profile? I don't always have the time to follow a discussion and want to see how either my questions are answered or would like to see what others post about a subject, but I have saved so many to my favorites that it might get forgotten about. 

You can always go back through your history if you post a lot. If you post a lot, probably saving it to your favorites is the only way to keep up with it. 

Can we have a way of following a thread of interest without saving it to my profile?

How would you like it to work? What would make it easiest for you? 

I don't see another way of that being done. It's not hard to add a topic to your favorites. I agree with what Vitamin said.