Turns out I had that option checked already! – but it seems (and with a little thought it does seem a bit obvious) that the most directly informative, “newsy” posts are never actually particularly popular, at least as far as activity and number of replies goes. The controversial ones, however, do great on that metric. So the profile setting serves as a really good way to keep up with Days of Our MakerSpace Lives (insert Michael Jackson Eating Popcorn meme here), but not a particularly good way to keep up with the “boring” news that actually affects how well we could use the 'Space.
Like I said – I dig Kris’ “news feed” idea.