Now that the forums are quite a few pages long an old item may not be seen very often and if a new post is made on an old topic  it may not be noticed. Would it be possible to sort the forums by date of last post or duplicate the forum in last post date order. Then if, say, a new member posts on an old topic it brings it to general notice.

I do belive theres that "search forum" bit.

That is exactly what happens.

If you post a reply on a topic that hasn't had any attention for ages, then it gets bought to the front page.

Yes, surely that is the protocol already applied.

Well that brought out the big guns (superior members).
It must be a good idea to already be in use,  I hadn't noticed it operating - not having been around for long (new member). But MC661 i thort that computors and software shud do the werk 4 u + surching is laborius and time cosnuming - anyway whose side r u on with your 087 numbers.

As posted earlier when you post something on to an additional post then this is brought to the top of the list (below any 'stickys').  Stickys are threads/topics that an admin member has made important enough so that it will always stay at the top of the list.

You still have to do a search though to find any threads/topics that may overtime drop down the list.

All the above is normal for forum software including this forum software.

Additional though, when doing a search within the Search Forums page, you have to remember to set the 'Max Age Since Last Post' from the default 7 days to a larger number, about 100, 200 or 300 days.  If you know the thread/topic was only posted recently (eg a month ago) then you can of course reduce the days to a smaller number like 40 days instead.

It is also recommended to increase the 'Display How Many Results' from 25 to a lot higher number.  I generally choose a number around 100.

As for the use of 087x numbers by some members (and myself), most (if not all) members generally only pass this number on to organisations/companies who themselves are using 087x numbers anyhow.  It is a way of getting at them (one could even say revenge).  I personally have an 0871 number and only pass it on to those companies that use 087x themselves and, to date, I have not made a penny from it.  This personally doesn't bother me as my intention is not exactly to make money from them but just show them just how expensive it can be to ring these numbers.