ahh yes, but you're assuming everyone uses PunnBB the same way.  I originally requested it so that I could use a specific forum for FAQ's.  I've got the most important and common FAQ's at the top, which I posted first, and then as smaller ones come up along the way, I add them.  I wanted to make sure that when I added them, they went to the bottom of the list, not the top so that the list remained in order of importance.  That particular one is a read-only forum, mixed in with the other regular forums that I want sorted in the normal most-recent-at-top order.
this hack gives me the option of setting the read-only FAQ forum to list topics with oldest (and most important) at that top.
An ideal scenario would be for an admin to have the ability to physically move topics around within a forum - like a "move to top" and/or "move to bottom" capability that only someone logged in as admin would have.  This would provide the ultimate flexibility in organizing forums that are read-only, for example.

That worked great, thanks very much.  I think this is a great add to the software and something that should be permanantly incorporated into it for everyone.  More choices of sorting = better!

Thanks again!

Wow, that's great - thanks for coming up with all that.  My only question, prior to implementing it, is will that change the sorting on a global scale?  I am looking to change the sort order for just one forum, not for all forums running under this copy of PunBB.

ahhhh....yes I understand now.  I am still searching then for a way to organize posts differently and haven't found a solution yet.  For example, a way to organize them in reverse order, with the oldest at top and most recent at bottom.  I need this for a "read-only" forum I'm creating next to my other regular forums.

There doesn't seem to be any change at all to the forum when you switch back and forth between organize forum by "last post" or "topic start".  Unless I"m not understanding what this is supposed to do.  My assumption was that if I have it set to "topic start" and I have a topic called "1 blah blah blah" that it would always be first in the list and something called "2 blah blah blah" in would be second, and so on.  I also tried a post with a word starting with "a" with the other posts starting with other letters and it still doesn't display it at the top.  Am I missing something?

Hi - thanks for the response.  Well, I have other forums there so it made sense to just include the FAQ's along with them there.  I have seen it done like this in other forums.  See, this FAQ area is for current customers whereas I have a different FAQ area on my site for potential customers.  They deal with different things and it makes sense to have the one dealing with technical issues alongside the tech support forum.  Are thee any kind of mods that would be more of a "FAQ system" as you mentioned?
And, you said it would be easy to reverse the order, but didn't how......could you elaborate?  that would solve the majority of my needs, although not all of them.

Is there currently a way to organize the topics in a forum differently?  For example, I'd like to actually organize them with oldest at top instead of newest, and would also love the ability to move topics around in the order manually.  Is any of this possible currently?

Essentially, I want to create a forum that is Frequently Asked Questions about my product.  Users will not be able to post in this particular forum, it is more for their information and reading only.  So, I'd like to be able to add FAQ's as time goes on and control where in the topic list that new topic is seen.  Or at least have the new topic added at the end/bottom instead of at the beginning/top.

Thanks!