Thanks for your reply and encouragement and sorry for taking so long to see this, but I'm still working out it all works! I've just realised that checking replies by the date is the easiest way to see new replies, which is pretty obvious when you know it!
I've been reading about bots and have felt a little discouraged that bots are being used, but maybe I'm not fully understanding them. To me to create positive change then people need to interact with each other and having bots up vote posts that aren't being read seems to defeat this objective?
Thanks for the information on randowhale, just checked that out, and I'm still working through the list and seeing other information too!
Thanks again for your encouragement. I have been looking for an alternative to Facebook so I know this is a long term project.