whenever i select active topics (usually 24 hours) a list of topics appears as expected. however, if i select one of these topics, i am always taken to the TOP of the topic, rather than to the last posting. is this a bug, or a feature?

Sounds like designed behavior, however I think I see your point. It would make more sense to jump to the last post.

BTW, if the thread in question has a "new" post that's been posted since you visited the thread, a yellow return arrow will appear next to the thread topic in the list. Clicking that arrow will jump you directly to the first new post.

Edit: There may be a bug in that yellow arrow. It's not showing up for all new posts for me. Investigating...

I thik it is design behavior to start at the top as there is a yellow arrow that shows if there is new posts (as mentioned) but it's odd that the arrow would show for no new posts in the thread; are you sure it went to the last page of that thread?

yes, i can see now that my "intuition" was in error, and that i should have clicked on the "Last post: " link ...