1.1 When I fill the form for starting a conversation, you'd like me to decide whether I want to participate in that conversation.
I don't see that this makes sense, because people start conversations in order to have them.
That's why other software works like this: It notifies one about each reaction to one's messages. One can disable some notifications for some time.
We can discuss whether to keep the field "Follow this topic" in this form.
1.2 I check the box of this field and post my message.
The Follow button in the right-side panel shows I'm not following this topic.
2. I've searched for: "follow this topic"
I see no results including this phrase and no message that Zoho Desk has not found this phrase.
How does one conduct in Zoho Desk a search for string1+string2?
We know a lot of software and a lot about user experience.
When software behaves like this, I feel that I can't rely on it.
We can use Zoho Desk and recommend it when it works.
We can help improve Zoho software.