Hi I'm new to 4chan and I'm just curious about how a cpl things work.

First off, is there a way to be notified when someone has replied to my comment or post? So far I've just been saving the links to threads I reply in and manually revisiting them to check, but I'm hoping there's an easier way.
Second, I can't find a search option...is there any way to find specific topics I'm looking for, or do I just have to go to the board where I think they'd most likely be, and sift through posts about a bunch of random things until I find what I'm looking for?
I'm sure these questions will be eyeroll-inducing to some, so sorry for that.

Oh also--MUST I choose a file whenever I start a thread?