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It’s because it lacks dimension. We use the scroll bar to get a sense for how long a thread will be. We use pagination to get a sense for how many posts are in
by dqv 5y ago
It’s because it lacks dimension. We use the scroll bar to get a sense for how long a thread will be. We use pagination to get a sense for how many posts are in the thread. Infinite scrolling doesn’t make sense for something where a sense of the whole is important. I get that sites like HN or (old) Reddit do the same thing, but the pages are cut up into much fewer chunks AND they’re not linear discussion forums!
They tried to solve this with a weird pseudo scroll bar in threads, but it still lacks dimension. There is no way to tell if the next 10 posts will be long or short. The pseudo scroll bar is just weird in general. I don’t really have anything succinct I can say about the way the pseudo bar represents dates but I can say it’s disorienting. I really should write about this
- joeberon 5y agoYes I definitely think the weird scrolling experience in threads is a huge issue for me. I am often in the thread and just have no intuitive feeling where I am. I return to a previous comment and then I don't remember where I was because instinctively on those kinds of linear threads I expect to be able to use the scrollbar to gauge it. I just haven't been able to adjust in any way to this kind of infinite scrolling + weird timeline pseudo-scrollbar way of working. It is weird because every single weird modern UI has eventually clicked with me in some way, but in this case it just hasn't and I've basically totally given up on it