Any visitor or user who clicks the Bugs tab, situated on the Top Questions Page, is presented with *single page of bugs ranked in order of votes. These upvotes might lead an inexperienced user (and they're still around) to believe these bugs are listed in order of importance e.g. “Top” = “highest (priority)”. Instead, they are listed according to popularity.
The first reported bug, with 127 upvotes, is Deletion votes from users who later become moderators shouldn't prevent community undeletion. I contend that it was never a bug to begin with. Users cannot vote to undelete a post that was deleted by five users if one of them was later elected as a mod. This appears to be by design but if it's not, why is it still listed as a bug after 5 years and 10 months? Call it an oversight, a forgivable lapse, a side-issue, but I don't think that can be classified as a software error.
The second bug–85 upvotes–reported in 2016 is Why is my profile image different? It is my understanding, very limited, I know, that this bug has since been fixed. In any case, SE issued avatars (Gravatars) that change overnight no longer happens. That bug has been resolved, hasn't it? Of what use is it to the community today? Shouldn't it have a moderator's tag or something, saying "fixed" or status completed?
The third reported bug is dated 2012: If users with <20 rep can't chat, why does SO nag me to move comment threads to chat? However, it was soon closed as a duplicate of a feature request: Disable chat migration notification if one of the users has insufficient rep?. That FR earned a status-completed tag in 2018. Again, who could possibly be interested in this "bug" today when, first of all, it was really a criticism of the chat design/functionality and not a bug. And secondly, it's closed, which means no new answers can be posted
The fourth top-rated bug, with 71 upvotes, is: The editor should be able to convert multi-line blocks to lists But is it a bug, in the real sense of the word? It appears to be another Feature Request. The answer posted suggests a viable solution of listing items but doesn't SE also allow users to make lists by using numbers followed by a period? For example,
- Item one
- Item two
- Item three (and so on)
UPDATE
Spurred by comments and Laurel's answer, I flagged the aforementioned post February 13, suggesting that it was not a bug. The flag was rejected with this boilerplate message
declined - flags should only be used to make moderators aware of content that requires their intervention
So, MSE is left with a "bug" that was reported 5 years and 11 months ago. I'm not sure how to interpret the response to my flag or the evident lack of activity or response this "bug" has produced.
Bug #5 was closed for being off-topic by Adam Lear ♦ in January this year, but it's still on the list. Which begs the question, why are off-topic posts allowed to clutter the Bugs page?
Bug #6 (64 upvotes) Is my SO Coffee Mug defective?
Although it has the status-norepro tag, it doesn't exclude it from appearing on the main page. We can agree that it was a fun post while it lasted, however, it is not a bug. A Stack Overflow coffee mug that does not automatically refill itself, is a problem for its owner not for the community. I dunno, maybe it belongs on the meme list?
In order to view the most recent bugs, a user must click on the sandwich menu, top left corner, then click on Questions which takes them to the All Questions page and then...(pause) there's no tab for bugs! How come? Why is there one on the Top Questions page but not on the All Questions?
The solution is to click the bug tag and then click Newest. This seems a rather counter-intuitive and tiresome process for a newcomer who will probably end up reporting a duplicate bug.
Why is there a bug tab on one page but not on the other? Why does that bug page have only one page, there is no page 2, 3, 4 etc?
What purpose does that page have: curiosity to find out which bug in MSE history collected the most upvotes? It's only until you reach the bottom that SE tells its visitors, Looking for more bugs? Browse the complete list.
Wouldn't it be better if there was a message at the top of the page? For example,
If you are looking for a complete list of bugs, click here
Wouldn't a handy list of unresolved bugs, ranked highest in priority, help prevent newcomers from posting duplicate bugs and encourage all users to upvote the reported bugs they care most about?