If anyone's interested in sorting by "thread start-time" (after installing this mod, of course), then do this:
Open FORUMDISPLAY template and replace
Code:
$vbphrase[thread] Title / $vbphrase[thread_starter]
with
Code:
$vbphrase[thread] Title / $vbphrase[thread_starter] / $vbphrase[thread_time]
then replace
Code:
<a href="$sorturl&order=asc&sort=postusername" rel="nofollow">$vbphrase[thread_starter]</a> $sortarrow[postusername]
with
Code:
<a href="$sorturl&order=asc&sort=postusername" rel="nofollow">$vbphrase[thread_starter]</a> $sortarrow[postusername] /
<a href="$sorturl&order=asc&sort=dateline" rel="nofollow">$vbphrase[thread_time]</a> $sortarrow[dateline]
then finally, make a custom Global vbphrase called thread_time, and make it whatever you want the sort link to say (mine was "Thread Start-Time").
No need to change any PHP, because it looks like the coders had it set up to sort by a thread's dateline, but there's simply no button for it.
Cheers all