Hi and welcome! I see you've figured out the avatar thing!
As far as signing in/out, as long as you select "remember me" you shouldn't have to do that everytime.
You can have new posts to subscribed threads emailed to you. Go to user cp and make the selection there. Please don't try to have all new posts sent to your email...lol, their are 100's of new posts here a day....your email account would fill up in no time! LOL
Hope you enjoy it here!