Text formatting

Whenever I make a new topic, the text formatting is all off. It's just one big block of text. Replies are formatted just fine, but creating new topics just make the text one large run-on block of text. Switching to the text editor within a topic (on the backend) and entering HTML works, but as soon as you switch back to the visual editor, all the formatting is lost although it looks to be formatted within the visual editor. Why is this?

EDIT: more info - if a topic is created on the backend, the text has no formatting. If a topic is created (or edited) on the front end the text is correctly formatted. If it's re-edited on the backend it loses all text formatting. Summary: any editing of a topic on the backend results in losing any text formatting and editing on the front end regains it.