I'm curious what happens when a question is marked favorite (by clicking on the star button, under the up/down-vote arrows)? The only thing I can see is that there's a number next to the star, showing how many people clicked on it.
Does marking a question as favorite do anything else, such as provide notifications on changes, or give the asker some benefit?
I've searched the help and found nothing on this topic. Thank you.
The most important side effect is that on your profile, you can see a list of favourited questions. This list can be seen by other users. Many people use this list as transient bookmarks for questions which they want to visit later (e.g. to see what answers have been posted in the meanwhile, or to make sure it has been put on hold).
Favouriting the question does not notify anybody, but it's a public vote like close votes or accepts, unlike up- or downvotes. It does not affect anyones reputation.
