Hi, Erik.
I found this on the KB:
PRB: Null RuleExpression, RuleText, and Default View Properties
Last reviewed: January 16, 1998
Article ID: Q179298

Sounds like what you are seeing. Let me know if you can't grab the article, and I'll post it here.

>I have discovered a problem when trying to add anything to the "Message" property in the view designer. I get an error message when saving changes that reads "Error reading property from the database. Property is ignored". Clicking help shows that it is error #1584.
...snip