In almost all the forums, posts are sorted by the date of their last reply. (Therefore, replying to, or "bumping" a topic, brings it to the top of the listing). This excludes Announcement and Sticky topics, which always appear first regardless of their time.
Posts in the Tutorials and Reviews forums, however, are sorted alphabetically. This makes it easier to find the topic you're looking for. Once again, Announcement and Sticky topics are listed first.
cscgal
The Queen of DaniWeb
19,420 posts since Feb 2002
Reputation Points: 1,474
Solved Threads: 229
Clicking the lil arrow w/ page icon will always take you to the last post of a thread. On the homepage, where the "word associate game" is displayed under Active Posts, this icon is the bullet for each thread. In the forum view, it's displayed with the last poster. (It's always there ;) )
In addition, every thread has a drop down menu to choose whether you want to sort it with newest or oldest first. (Look at the bottom of the table containing the posts).
cscgal
The Queen of DaniWeb
19,420 posts since Feb 2002
Reputation Points: 1,474
Solved Threads: 229