Quote - Having watched a couple of threads in the forums (and having been caught out myself), may I be so bold as to suggest a couple or three changes to the sorting method?

1. (Simple text changes).  In each forum, there are Threads. Within each Thread there are Posts (aka Replies).  So what does "Sort by Post date" actually mean? It could mean either.. it's ambiguous.

Suggestion: Change text of "Sort by post date"  to be "Sort by Thread Date".  (Or possibly "Sort by Thread Start Date").

It sounds like you're confused :(

Sort by Last Reply = Any thread with a new post in it gets moved to the top of the list. This type of sort system is also called "Post Bumping" and is used on the majority of forums that I've ever frequented. Renderosity was the only one that didn't have that until recently.  This is also similar to what used to be called on the old forum as "show new posts".

Sort by Post Date =  Threads remain in their posted position no matter what.  Making new posts do not alter the position of the thread. Which means you have to go page by page looking to see if there are threads with new posts in them.  Sounds to me like this is the method you want?

We see threads from 1999 and 2000 being posted in sometimes.  If the threads are sorted by "Sort by Post Date" which also means thread date, then the chances of anyone getting a reply to a question they posted in a thread they found while doing a search is NIL.. unless people spend hours clicking dozens of pages going all the way back to 1999 to see if there are replies to any old threads.  Doubtful that would happen.

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi