Subject: Bugs should be sorted by severity _before_ pagination, not after

From: Mark H Weaver <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2018 01:05:13 -0400

Severity: wishlist
Package: debbugs.gnu.org

[ Resent from
  http://lists.gnu.org/r/help-debbugs/2018-06/msg00000.html ]

Hi,

I have a serious bug in Guix (<https://bugs.gnu.org/31380>) that needs
more attention.  Towards that end, it would be helpful if it were shown
prominently on Guix's bug page at <https://bugs.gnu.org/guix>.

Unfortunately, because its bug number is too high, it ends up on page 2,
even though there are only 5 serious bugs in Guix, and no bugs of higher
severity.

The bugs listing page is clearly designed to show the most severe bugs
first, which makes good sense.  Unfortunately, the sorting happens
*after* pagination.  The bugs are sorted by bug number, split into
pages, and then each page is sorted by severity.

As a result, the most severe bugs are sprinkled across multiple pages,
instead of being shown first.  A project could have only grave bug, but
if its bug number was high enough it would be shown on the last page.
This is not good.

Instead, I suggest sorting the bugs by severity *before* splitting them
into pages.

What do you think?

      Mark