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If users want to scroll endlessly, they should be able to, and they're going to, regardless of what scrolling implementation a platform uses - I scroll through

by squigz 2y ago

If users want to scroll endlessly, they should be able to, and they're going to, regardless of what scrolling implementation a platform uses - I scroll through many pages of HN just fine without infinite scroll.

antisthenes 2y ago
If infinite scroll was an alternative to regular pagination on every site, you'd have a point. But oftentimes it's the only option available, and it's garbage for everything except mindless scrolling.
nunez 2y ago
That's true, but pagination without read ahead goes a long way to drop engagement, especially for users with slower Internet connections.
- nottorp 2y ago
  Using or thinking of "engagement" is the 8th deadly sin*. It just proves you're not thinking of the user's interests. * sin count taken from the Iron Maiden song.
soraminazuki 2y ago
But infinite scrolling never worked properly on browsers. With infinite scrolling, it just forgets everything once you navigate out of the page. To resume from where you were, you have to scroll and scroll and scroll and load the results all over again. Even if you were a single page away when you hit the back button. I've now been conditioned to open almost every link in a new tab because of this and it drives me crazy. This and the fact that going a back a page is so slow nowadays for whatever reason.
- sovok_x 2y ago
  You just use bad tools for that. When using custom AutoPagerize UserJS mod that utilizes pushState, endless scrolling works like a charm for me for years already. Like I can scroll to thousand-numbered items of HN seamlessly. It remembers the exact page you were on after you close the tab and overrides "target" property of added pages' links to open everything in new tabs regardlessly, preventing accidental page reloads. IDK why developers don't reproduce this. Kinda sad more and more Web sites switch to pointless AJAX app model recently and it stops working for those.
amomchilov 2y ago
What? Infinite scroll gets higher “engagement,” then pagination. Those are people who kept scrolling, who wouldn’t have otherwise.

by squigz 2y ago

antisthenes 2y ago

If infinite scroll was an alternative to regular pagination on every site, you'd have a point. But oftentimes it's the only option available, and it's garbage for everything except mindless scrolling.

nunez 2y ago

That's true, but pagination without read ahead goes a long way to drop engagement, especially for users with slower Internet connections.

nottorp 2y ago
Using or thinking of "engagement" is the 8th deadly sin*. It just proves you're not thinking of the user's interests. * sin count taken from the Iron Maiden song.

soraminazuki 2y ago

But infinite scrolling never worked properly on browsers. With infinite scrolling, it just forgets everything once you navigate out of the page. To resume from where you were, you have to scroll and scroll and scroll and load the results all over again. Even if you were a single page away when you hit the back button. I've now been conditioned to open almost every link in a new tab because of this and it drives me crazy. This and the fact that going a back a page is so slow nowadays for whatever reason.

sovok_x 2y ago
You just use bad tools for that. When using custom AutoPagerize UserJS mod that utilizes pushState, endless scrolling works like a charm for me for years already. Like I can scroll to thousand-numbered items of HN seamlessly. It remembers the exact page you were on after you close the tab and overrides "target" property of added pages' links to open everything in new tabs regardlessly, preventing accidental page reloads. IDK why developers don't reproduce this. Kinda sad more and more Web sites switch to pointless AJAX app model recently and it stops working for those.

amomchilov 2y ago

What? Infinite scroll gets higher “engagement,” then pagination. Those are people who kept scrolling, who wouldn’t have otherwise.