Welcome Phillipa ! I've been out tonight with friends and have just logged on, so I didn't know there'd been problems here...
Anyway, hope you get a notification that you have a reply and that you get loads of other responses. When you've had enough you can simply click on the little box that asks if you wish to close your question. It doesn't actually close the question, it just means that you no longer get e-mails about replies...
Oh... and before you ask, your username is displayed in green for 14 days unless you write a naughty word, in which case your username shows up in purple to some of us select few but green to the rest of the outgangworkers. After 14 days of acceptable behaviour, your username will go greyyyyyyyyyyyy.... apologies in advance for this !