Users are discussing the addition of an orderdesc modifier to Discourse’s advanced search to allow descending order for any sort field (e.g., orderdesc:views, orderdesc:likes). meglio proposes this as a universal solution for reverse sorting, noting potential use cases like identifying low-engagement content or improving SEO. riking suggests using order:-views or order:-latest syntax instead. sam expresses skepticism about the need for orderdesc:likes or orderdesc:views, but is open to adding order:earliest for rare cases. meglio counters that unexpected use cases may arise, advocating for a consistent operator. chadwhitacre supports the feature for managing forum “inbox” workflows by sorting posts from least to most recent. riking offers the Unanswered filter as an alternative and mentions a PR adding “Oldest Update” sorting, seeking better naming. Canapin shares personal experience searching within topics and notes confusion between “Latest Post” and “Latest Topic” sorting, suggesting clearer chronological options (ascending/descending) would be helpful — even if used mostly for fun. The thread highlights demand for flexible, intuitive sorting controls beyond the current defaults.
While we can choose which field to order by when searching in advanced mode:
… we cannot choose whether we want to order ascending or descending.
Adding orderdesc modifier would easily make it possible:
order:likes is already descending, right?
So what you want is “the opposite of the normal order that this term means”.
Not sure about this, but… How about order:-views to start at 0 and go up, while order:-latest starts at the oldest?
struggling to think of use cases for orderdesc:likes or orderdesc:views, though I am open to possibly adding order:earliest (its quite rare to need though)
We should find a way to allow for opposite ordering for any ordering type (kind of a universal way of doing it), then easier to remember and use.
You never know what one could come up with 
I’d use orderdesk:likes to identify which type of material is the worst in terms of people likes and not create similar topics, or not include them in the lists.
orderdesc:views might possibly indicate topics that need some more useful information to get more attractions from organic search.
I think there might be more use-cases I can’t think of, why not just make it possible with a single operator.
I want this feature in order to support an “inbox” use case for processing forum traffic: I have a search that I want to sort by least recently posted (so that I can work down the queue of posts awaiting a response), and I can only get most recently posted (afaict).
You might want to consider using the Unanswered filter: /latest?max_posts=1.
However, I did also write a PR to add this sorting option:
Taking suggestions as to what the name in the dropdown menu should be, I don’t really like “Oldest Update”.
I was looking for a way to sort results by oldest (ascending chronological order, adding these terms for future search on meta…) when searching inside a topic.
I couldn’t find “Sort by Oldest Post” (there’s only Latest Post), but I did try “Sort by Latest Topic” and it did work.
I think I understand the logic, but the words are a bit counterintuitive in this particular case.
A choice of ascending/descending chronological order would be, for me, a nice addition, I sometimes try to do that, and did it on other forums that allowed it. Often most for fun than looking for specific and interesting info though.
Also, I wonder how often people sort by Latest, compared to the default “Relevance”. I often use “by Latest” on many forums.