# It’s unclear what determines topic order in category ‘Latest’ view

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/it-s-unclear-what-determines-topic-order-in-category-latest-view/395327
**Category:** UX
**Tags:** topic-voting
**Created:** [5 februari 2026 om 21:37 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/it-s-unclear-what-determines-topic-order-in-category-latest-view/395327 "2026-02-05T21:37:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
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### Author: ![awesomerobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/awesomerobot/32/142900_2.png) [@awesomerobot](https://meta.discourse.org/u/awesomerobot)
#### Post date: [5 februari 2026 om 21:54 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/it-s-unclear-what-determines-topic-order-in-category-latest-view/395327/2 "2026-02-05T21:54:54Z")

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Yes, I caused this the other day by changing the default sort on latest… and was similarly kind of at a loss for the options we present:

We _do_ have the ability to change the default filter (`default topic list`)… I started off with this, but then realized that ordering for `votes` appeared differently for anons? haven’t dug into why that is yet.

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/0/8/e/08ee84375deb25257ca29049b6ec51f5637682c2.png)

So then I noticed that there’s another option `topic list sort by` where `votes` is also an option, and this one is consistently sorted for everyone… so I used that.

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/e/2/4/e24050eafac6e23d33384b49a47dd52d73328b0b.png)

We should probably not have votes in `topic list sort by` (because it’s not a sortable column) and rely on `default topic list` and sort out why that wasn’t working as expected.

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