Forum overview listing displays all node types as new topics w/negative #s

I am new to drupal, so hopefully this isn't pilot error ;-)

I've noticed several problems with the forums module.

PROBLEM #1 - term with tid=1

When I first installed 4.5rc, I enabled the forums module from admin/modules.

I then went to admin/taxonomy (categories in the admin menu) and created vocabulary "Discussion Forums" of type "forum topic", hierarchy "multiple", "multiple select" checked, weight "0", and everything else blank.

I then added terms to the "Discussion Forums", entering a term name, but leaving everything else blank.

Whatever term is assigned tid=1 in the mysql term_data table appears under forums as a "container", while the terms assinged to subsequent tid's appear as forums that can be posted to. If the tid's for two terms are swapped in the table (i.e. change tid=1 to tid=2, and tid=2 to tid=1) the one assigned tid=1 becomes the container that can't be posted to.

At first I thought I did something wrong, because when I delete the term that was the "container", and recreated it, it seemed that everything was fixed, but that was just because a new tid was assigned.

PROBLEM #2 -

This one I haven't figured out how to replicate yet, but at some point creating and deleting terms, vocabulary, and nodes associated with forums (all using the drupal interface "Delete" buttons/links, not messing with the mysql tables), I am now at the point where when I post a new topic to a forum, everthing works fine, EXCEPT that one the "forum" page, in the table with headings "topics" and "posts", the values always remain zero, and "last post" is always blank. Clicking on the name of the forum, which would normally display the posts in a table with the headings "Topic", "Replies", "Created", and "Last reply", are all blank. The hyperlink that normally shows up under on the "forum" page under "topics" which would normally display something like "3 new" to indicate that there are three new posts, now is incremented with negative numbers. (i.e. 1 new post shows "-1 new", two new posts shows "-2 new", etc.).

The only way to view the topics posted, is to view them from the home page (if they were promoted), or from a link in the logs. There, if one goes to the edit tab, the forum (term) where they were supposed to be posted is selected correctly, they just don't show up there anymore. I deleted everything I could think of related to forums to try to start fresh, but something is still messed up.