Sorry, I didn't mean to come across as agressive. I've been trying to curtail my propensity for verbosity, and sometimes it comes across as curt.

The "DamnTikiWiki TOC" is the linear list of threads (top-level posts only) that came with the original software. I replaced it with a more-familiar tree-shaped TOC while you were absent. I thought you might have crossed the membrane into that alternate universe, but now I understand we're talking about the page that displays messages after you click in the TOC. That's another "DamnTikiWiki" design, one that I want to replace someday too.

The threading and ordering are configurable, and are set for DamnTikiWiki's lame version of threaded, newest-first. It's set to allow you to override the default, but just now when I checked, I found the setting "Keep settings for all forums during the user session." unchecked. That probably refers to a cookie that remembers your choices, and now that it's enabled, and if you have cookies enabled in your browser, it should remember your choice. "Should" being the operating word with DamnTikiWiki. Let me know if it defies you.