I also have exactly the same problem as jeremy-list has. Even after I change the sorting scheme of my home directory it resets itself and sorts items by modification date in reverse order. It's really annoying. I've also tried deleting some directories such as .nautilus and .gconf/apps/nautilus, and even reinstalled nautilus using apt-get. But, the problem still persists.
I also have exactly the same problem as jeremy-list has. Even after I change the sorting scheme of my home directory it resets itself and sorts items by modification date in reverse order. It's really annoying. I've also tried deleting some directories such as .nautilus and .gconf/ apps/nautilus, and even reinstalled nautilus using apt-get. But, the problem still persists.