The query for Special:Contributions?contribs=newbie&dir=prev is slow on enwiki (>25 seconds), occasionally resulting in database query errors (IndexPager::buildQueryInfo (contributions page unfiltered)).
These are slow:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&contribs=newbie&dir=prev
- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&contribs=newbie&offset=20160604
This is fast: