Gnus v5.8.5
GNU Emacs 20.3.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit)
 of Thu Dec 17 1998 on halfdome.holdit.com
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Earlier, I reported that I needed to use ^U ^C ^S instead of ^C ^S in
the *groups* order to get my news groups sorted correctly.  Well, I
just now looked at my .newsrc, and was equally shocked.

It appears that my .newsrc and my .newsrc.eld is also being stored in
reverse order.  That is, the presentation I get in *Groups* seems to
be exactly the opposite of how things are stored.

So perhaps it's just the *Groups* output code?  Did that change between
5.8.3 and 5.8.5?