Nautilus view settings are not persistent based on the folder.  Or stated another way, Nautlius doesn't remember the folder view settings.

It used to remember the settings.  But this behaviour was changed from remembering the view settings per folder to remembering the view settings per window. See the bug:

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=682017

This seems to me to be a questionable UX decision based on a bug report. Many users would prefer when going to some folders to see icons and for other folders to see a list, based on the contents of the folders.  For example, I might expect to set a folder to show a list of titles in a folder called 'Documents' but set a folder with photos in it to show the thumbnail icons.  This would include other view settings like 'zoom' level.

This is how MacOS finder works.

It makes less sense to have the persistence of the setting based on the random fact of a given window invocation at a given time.  

Perhaps it should be a gconf setting, or better yet, a setting in the Preferences.

[Or take a hybrid approach (as in MacOS finder) where a setting change remains persistent if you move to a new folder in a given window but it doesn't change the persistent setting for the folder if you reopen directly into that folder.  This is very natural.  And is easier seen that described.]