Tommy:

Yeah, I can see how that would suck. I just tried the steps you mentioned on my machine, and comment lines don't outdent for me. So just in case it helps, here's my .vimrc file:

" .vimrc
" 20100104 set cursorline for better visibility
" 20080618 Trying to fix fileencoding so we can write UNICODE as LATIN
" 20080617 reopen file at same position as last seen
" 20080416 Chg/set backspace, display, fillchars, color scheme
" 20050208 original version

set fileencodings=ucs-bom,utf-8,default,latin1
"set tabstop=4
set nowrap
set ruler               " show cursor position always
set showcmd             " display incomplete commands
set incsearch           " incremental searching
set modeline            " Allow setting values in file
"set background=dark    " Make color scheme visible
colorscheme roboticus
set cursorcolumn        " Make cursor column obvious for icicles, etc.

if &t_Co > 2 || has("gui_running")
        syntax on
        set hlsearch
endif

"if has("autocmd")
"       " highlight the active cursor line
"       set cursorline
"       hi CursorLine ctermbg=1
"endif

if has("autocmd")
        " highlight the active cursor line
        set cursorline
        "hi CursorLine ctermbg=7
        hi CursorLine ctermbg=4
        " Recognize file types and use appropriate indenting
        filetype plugin indent on
        augroup vimrcEx
        autocmd FileType text setlocal textwidth=78
        augroup END
else
        " set autoindent
endif " has("autocmd")

" 20080416 MCM New additions
set backspace=eol,indent,start  " Make backspacing a little easier
set display=lastline            " Show partial lines when in wrap mode

" Doesn't work?
set fillchars=stl:=,stlnc:=

" Autowrap text with comment leader as appropriate, automatically exte
+nd com
" t - autoformat text, c - autoformat comments, r - automatically cont
+inue
" comment on next line, o - automatically continue column on o/O comma
+nd, q -
" allow comment formatting with gq command, l - don't break long lines
+ if they
" started long, b - autowrap only if you hit a blank before the wrap m
+argin.
set formatoptions=tcroqlb

" 20080617 MCM Reopen file at last-edited position (see :help
" last-position-jump)
au BufReadPost * if line("'\"") > 0 && line("'\"") <= line("$") | exe 
+"normal g'\"" | endif
[download]

...roboticus