Guidance on sort order triangle direction is opposite of prevailing convention

This has been discussed looong ago here https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=305277 and consensus seemes to have been reached to what is obvious: that the direction of the triangle icons indicating ascending/descending ordering in lists is reversed, i.e. wrong.

I don't know exactly what relation there is between gnome and unity, but I'm astonished to see that the issue is also present in Unity two years later (two years since the first comment; the bug report indeed dates back to 2005!!).

The small end of the triangle (i.e. its tip) should correspond to the side where things are small (i.e. small numbers, strings beginning with 'a', etc), and the big end of the triangle (i.e. its base) should correspond to the side where things are big (big numbers, strings beginning with 'z',...). So a triangle with the tip on the top should mean "ascending downwards", and a triangle with the tip on the bottom and the base on the top should mean "descending downwards". This is the prevailing convention EVERYWHERE except in Ubuntu, and it is also the only one that makes sense.

The only possible ambiguity (or questionability) is with dates, because an earlier date can be regarded as "smaller" than a more recent date but also as a "bigger" time ago.

Apparently, the (wrong) rationale behind the reverse directioning is that the triangles are mistakenly seen as "arrows" indicating in which physical direction the values are increasing. Hence a "down arrow" (triangle with the tip at the bottom) would mean "the values increase downwards". Note however that this reasoning is fundamentally flawed in that it requires an already implicit "increasing" ordering: if the arrow points "downwards" you have to read "downwards is increasing", if it points upwards you have to read "upwards is increasing".

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: unity 4.24.0-0ubuntu2b1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-13.22-generic 3.0.6
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-13-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.gpus.0: Error: [Errno 21] Is a directory: '/proc/driver/nvidia/gpus/0'
.proc.driver.nvidia.registry: Binary: ""
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module 280.13 Wed Jul 27 16:55:43 PDT 2011
 GCC version: gcc version 4.6.1 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.1-9ubuntu3)
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,vpswitch,mousepoll,compiztoolbox,snap,place,resize,session,regex,grid,wall,move,gnomecompat,imgpng,animation,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,workarounds,scale,expo,ezoom,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
Date: Thu Dec 8 14:46:31 2011
DistUpgraded: Log time: 2011-12-07 19:34:40.350850
DistroCodename: oneiric
DistroVariant: ubuntu
GraphicsCard:
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   Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:15d2]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
JockeyStatus:
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 xorg:nvidia_current - NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (Proprietary, Enabled, In use)
 pkg:sl-modem-daemon - Software modem (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use)
 xorg:nvidia_current_updates - NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (post-release updates) (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use)
MachineType: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. M51Sn
ProcEnviron:
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 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-13-generic root=UUID=173acbf5-26a0-49e3-8d2b-f1c142582cbf ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-12-07 (0 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 12/24/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 303
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: M51Sn
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr303:bd12/24/2007:svnASUSTeKComputerInc.:pnM51Sn:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:rnM51Sn:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:ct10:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: M51Sn
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.6+bzr20110929-0ubuntu6
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.26-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.11-0ubuntu3
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.11-0ubuntu3
version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers N/A
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6+7ubuntu7
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.6.0-1ubuntu13
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20110811.g93fc084-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.15.901-1ubuntu2.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110411+8378443-1