If I chmod a file to 777 and then commit it to a Subversion repository and then do a checkout, the checkout command removes the "world" write bit from the file (it's a directory, but whatever,) does anyone know how to fix this? I've looked on Google but can't find anything.

Have you tried setting the shell's umask (type umask in the shell followed by an octal mask of permissions to not set by default, it works in Bash at least; see your shell's man page)? The svn program might reset it (I haven't checked) or set explicit masks for things it (re-)creates, but it's worth a try.

That didn't work.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm kind of stuck right now... and I need this.