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My "favorite" infinite scrolling fail is when there is a footer on the site, and it keeps being pushed down by the infinite loading of new data, such that you c

My "favorite" infinite scrolling fail is when there is a footer on the site, and it keeps being pushed down by the infinite loading of new data, such that you can't reach any of the links the footer contains (like, you know, "About" or things like that).

cm23 7y ago
Came here to say just this! It's even better when you actually might want to click on something on the footer.
- glandium 7y ago
  Bonus points if you go on to click on the footer, the infinite scroll kicks in, and your mouse cursor ends up on a link in the newly loaded text, which you end up clicking on. (Or video content, or whatever ends up doing something because you clicked)
  - sly010 7y ago
    ... then you get ads served based on that.
  - samwhiteUK 7y ago
    And then you click to go back and it doesn't resume where you were before, and instead dumps you right back up at the top, with none of the previously loaded content available.
    - JulianMorrison 7y ago
      Or in the case of Facebook, a new top, one that intentionally excludes whatever you were looking at before (because "it has been read" - even though you got no more than a glimpse in frustrated passing).
- brlewis 7y ago
  Yes. FTA, "Website visitors have been taught that a footer is placed at the bottom with information such as contact, about us, privacy policy and so on."
  - pluma 7y ago
    Bonus points when that info actually still lives there but is now rendered inaccessible, violating the actual laws their presence is intended to comply with. E.g. in Germany the impressum (often also called "imprint" in English versions of German websites; a mandatory page listing the physical address, contact information, registration numbers and other legal information, typically linked in the footer) must be easy to find and accessible with no more than two clicks (though this seems to be more of a heuristic than a strict legal definition).
akskos 7y ago
Yep, then you have to view the source and find the links from there
- dragonwriter 7y ago
  And that gets frustrated when, even though it's static content, it's dynamically loaded.
mar77i 7y ago
Was wondering that and then told myself, come on, nobody would be that evil, the whole idea is nonsense. And you're suggesting there are websites out there that actually do that?
- leokennis 7y ago
  Not evil, but stupid.
- wlesieutre 7y ago
  Google (image search) and Facebook (news feed) have both done this. Last time it came up I was able to find a screen shot of one of them but not the other, let me see if I can dig that up. I don't think they did it deliberately, but I'd bet someone said "We could increase engagement if people didn't have to click anything to keep seeing more content" and nobody bothered to think about other design consequences of automatically expanding the content downward forever. EDIT: A screenshot of Facebook's in mid-2013 is shown here under the "Unreachable" header https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/05/infinite-scrolling-lets-get-to-the-bottom-of-this/ https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/05/infinite-scrolling-... Or straight to the image: https://cloud.netlifyusercontent.com/assets/344dbf88-fdf9-42bb-adb4-46f01eedd629/a1c917a5-6828-490d-ae2e-15b49a5e8c05/facebook-loading-footer.png https://cloud.netlifyusercontent.com/assets/344dbf88-fdf9-42...
- dabernathy89 7y ago
  I have seen this multiple times. It's almost certainly out of ignorance, and not intentional. Just someone trying to implement a slick UI without really thinking it through.
- vollmond 7y ago
  Old Navy does this. There's a limit; 3 or so "loads" finally gets you to the footer. https://oldnavy.gap.com/ https://oldnavy.gap.com/
- snisarenko 7y ago
  https://www.indiehackers.com/ https://www.indiehackers.com/
panzerdp 7y ago
To overcome this problem and reach the footer, I usually search for About page.
- wobbly_bush 7y ago
  You can also try Command (or Alt on windows) + bottom arrow, this would take you to the footer on a lot of websites.
stjohnswarts 7y ago
None of the sites that I use that have infinite scroll have a footer worth mentioning. Can you point out a site? That seems more like just bad coding than a problem with infinite scroll.
- snisarenko 7y ago
  https://www.indiehackers.com/ https://www.indiehackers.com/ They have useful info in the footer. But it's impossible to get to the footer.

cm23 7y ago

Came here to say just this! It's even better when you actually might want to click on something on the footer.

glandium 7y ago
Bonus points if you go on to click on the footer, the infinite scroll kicks in, and your mouse cursor ends up on a link in the newly loaded text, which you end up clicking on. (Or video content, or whatever ends up doing something because you clicked)
- sly010 7y ago
  ... then you get ads served based on that.
- samwhiteUK 7y ago
  And then you click to go back and it doesn't resume where you were before, and instead dumps you right back up at the top, with none of the previously loaded content available.
  - JulianMorrison 7y ago
    Or in the case of Facebook, a new top, one that intentionally excludes whatever you were looking at before (because "it has been read" - even though you got no more than a glimpse in frustrated passing).
brlewis 7y ago
Yes. FTA, "Website visitors have been taught that a footer is placed at the bottom with information such as contact, about us, privacy policy and so on."
- pluma 7y ago
  Bonus points when that info actually still lives there but is now rendered inaccessible, violating the actual laws their presence is intended to comply with. E.g. in Germany the impressum (often also called "imprint" in English versions of German websites; a mandatory page listing the physical address, contact information, registration numbers and other legal information, typically linked in the footer) must be easy to find and accessible with no more than two clicks (though this seems to be more of a heuristic than a strict legal definition).

akskos 7y ago

Yep, then you have to view the source and find the links from there

dragonwriter 7y ago
And that gets frustrated when, even though it's static content, it's dynamically loaded.

mar77i 7y ago

Was wondering that and then told myself, come on, nobody would be that evil, the whole idea is nonsense. And you're suggesting there are websites out there that actually do that?

leokennis 7y ago
Not evil, but stupid.
wlesieutre 7y ago
Google (image search) and Facebook (news feed) have both done this. Last time it came up I was able to find a screen shot of one of them but not the other, let me see if I can dig that up. I don't think they did it deliberately, but I'd bet someone said "We could increase engagement if people didn't have to click anything to keep seeing more content" and nobody bothered to think about other design consequences of automatically expanding the content downward forever. EDIT: A screenshot of Facebook's in mid-2013 is shown here under the "Unreachable" header https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/05/infinite-scrolling-lets-get-to-the-bottom-of-this/ https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/05/infinite-scrolling-... Or straight to the image: https://cloud.netlifyusercontent.com/assets/344dbf88-fdf9-42bb-adb4-46f01eedd629/a1c917a5-6828-490d-ae2e-15b49a5e8c05/facebook-loading-footer.png https://cloud.netlifyusercontent.com/assets/344dbf88-fdf9-42...
dabernathy89 7y ago
I have seen this multiple times. It's almost certainly out of ignorance, and not intentional. Just someone trying to implement a slick UI without really thinking it through.
vollmond 7y ago
Old Navy does this. There's a limit; 3 or so "loads" finally gets you to the footer. https://oldnavy.gap.com/ https://oldnavy.gap.com/
snisarenko 7y ago
https://www.indiehackers.com/ https://www.indiehackers.com/

panzerdp 7y ago

To overcome this problem and reach the footer, I usually search for About page.

wobbly_bush 7y ago
You can also try Command (or Alt on windows) + bottom arrow, this would take you to the footer on a lot of websites.

stjohnswarts 7y ago

None of the sites that I use that have infinite scroll have a footer worth mentioning. Can you point out a site? That seems more like just bad coding than a problem with infinite scroll.

snisarenko 7y ago
https://www.indiehackers.com/ https://www.indiehackers.com/ They have useful info in the footer. But it's impossible to get to the footer.