I have found a workaround for this by using CSS below to reverse HTML element order for activity section. This makes the detail/summary part to be shown at the top, and comments are now sorted from older to newer with a new comment form at the bottom.

<style>     
    div.cv-request-details > div.aui-page-panel.cv-page-body > div.aui-page-panel-inner.cv-page-body-inner > section.aui-page-panel-content {
        transform: rotate(180deg);
    }      

    ul.vp-activity-list > li, ul.vp-activity-list > div, .comment-form {
        transform: rotate(-180deg);
    }    

    .vp-activity-title {
        display:none
    }    

    div.activity-item.request-fields.clearfix {
        padding-left: 0px
    }
</style>

There may be a better way insert CSS into customer portal without having to pay for a plugin but below is a plug in that I use. If anyone knows a free alternative, please share.

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1219330/global-css-and-js-for-jira?tab=overview&hosting=datacenter

Yessirreee this is a pain.   I have issue types and request types I can't even get the details to show at all for, and many that do work.  I have had outside Jira specialists and people with many years of experience unable to solve that problem successfully.    ......but that is a digression.   It certainly makes more sense to have the details at the top.   Or even better yet selectable by the user and the choice stored in their profile!    It seems that Atlassian has halted all development, fixes, and enhancements on Data Center and /Server to focus on Cloud.   Cloud is twice as expensive, the UI is significantly more confusing, and it has 1/2 the flexibility and features.    Who runs Atlassian now anyway?  Must be some fresh out of Harvard marketing twit or some clueless bean counter from Wharton School of Business.   Accountants ruin everything. 

No, really, this is flabbergasting.  You click on an issue in the service desk portal, and the first thing you get is a list of random comments from the users which might have nothing to do with an original issue.

This is beyond unusable, this is fundamentally broken. 

How in the hell do we have this issue in the first place?.. If I click on the issue on the service desk portal, I expect to see the description, and then the comments.

We are very confused by this UI design, our customers are very confused, who though this is a good idea in the first place?.. 

Indeed Sverre! I don't understand that this cannot be solved yet.. I can't even find an extension for it
I think people just accept it.. BOOO

In the Service Desk Portal, when a customer reads the history of an issue. The issue summary is shown at the BOTTOM of the page. However, for service desk agents, this information is at the TOP of the page.

For Service Desk Agents. The Issue Summary and Issue Description are critical information for understanding and responding to the issue.

For Customers. The last comment is first and foremost on the Issue page and so becomes the focus of their response.

As a result, there is a clear disconnect in the conversation between Customers and Service Desk Agents. Both have a distinctly different focus.

I would like to change our Service Desk Portal such that:
1. The Issue Summary details is ALWAYS at the top of the Issue page for customers. So that they can see and review the original request details, each time they respond.
2. That comments are sorted in the SAME order as Service Desk Agents see, by default in JIRA.

These two simple changes would greatly enhance the overall experience of our customers, increase the effectiveness of our support team and reduce the support work load by keep support requests on TOPIC.

Related change requests: JSDSERVER-507 and JSDSERVER-190

I'm very interested in getting this issue FIXED.

Five year old issue. Have people learned to live with this, or is the majority happy with "hiding" the details on the bottom.