Infinite scrolling

[Deleted member 7866]

Forums are all about discussion. Why in "fresh" and "intuitive" forum software like XenForo threads' pagination still exists? It's not 1990. We have possibilities to kill it once for all. Discourse shows how thread view should looke like: there's no neeed for pagination because next posts are loaded without any page refresh; the only thing we need to do is scroll down.

Will XenForo implement feature like this?

 

[Adam Howard]

Forums are all about discussion. Why in "fresh" and "intuitive" forum software like XenForo threads' pagination still exists? It's not 1990. We have possibilities to kill it once for all. Discourse shows how thread view should looke like: there's no neeed for pagination because next posts are loaded without any page refresh; the only thing we need to do is scroll down.

Will XenForo implement feature like this?

My question about such a design is how would you find a post that was in a 400 reply thread? For me, I'd remember that it was on page 39. How would you do it?

 

[Deleted member 7866]

I would bookmark it:

 

[Amaury]

I would bookmark it:
View attachment 62536

And then you'd have tons of bookmarks. No, thanks.

 

[Paul B]

I loathe infinite scroll.

It gets a no thanks from me.

 

[Adam Howard]

I would bookmark it:
View attachment 62536

Often when you're looking for a post, it's not something in the moment, when you first read it, that you thought would need to be referenced for later. You need something you can quickly pull up an index / page as the need arises.

So your bookmark idea doesn't apply to the vast majority of post on any community.

 

[Deleted member 7866]

And then you'd have tons of bookmarks.

Why? You bookmark things because they are more important that the rest for you.

 

[Amaury]

Why? You bookmark things because they are more important that the rest for you.

There's such a thing as overdoing it. I'd rather look through a discussion containing 100 pages than a page containing 2,000 messages.

 

[Adam Howard]

Why? You bookmark things because they are more important that the rest for you.

You're assuming that when you first read X post, that you will have the foresight of knowing that it will have relevance later.

As most beings are unable to predict the future ..... That bookmark idea becomes pointless when trying to find something by memory inside a thread, without having to scroll through every post to get it.

 

[Deleted member 7866]

Often when you're looking for a post, it's not something in the moment, when you first read it, that you thought would need to be referenced for later.

So if you have just read 400 replay thread (how many people would do that, anyway?) you remember exact index of post you want to reference?

Most threads do not have more than 200 replays, most users do not read thread with more than 200 replayes from the begining. Most people adjusts to most people.

 

[Adam Howard]

So if you have just read 400 replay thread (how many people would do that, anyway?) you remember exact index of post you want to reference?

Most threads do not have more than 200 replays, most users do not read thread with more than 200 replayes from the begining. Most people adjusts to most people.

If you're the OP who started the thread and it is important to you, odds are good you read over the replies. Odds are also good that many people who took part in such a thread also read over the replies.

That is how both useful information and LOL's are had on forums.

You've never been part of a big community, have you?

Most people adjusts to most people

Sheeple.... If most people jump off a bridge....

 

[Deleted member 7866]

You've never been part of a big community, have you?

What is "big community" for you? Users adding few hundreds posts per day?

Sheeple.... If most people jump off a bridge....

I didn't talked about people who thinks that the better options are chosen by most. What I am trying to say is that products (like XenForo) should adjust to most customer's usage.

 

[Paul B]

What I am trying to say is that products (like XenForo) should adjust to most people's usage.

Judging by the responses so far...

 

[Shelley]

I want to keep my fingers from the vast amount of potential scrolling. Not something I would personally like to ever see in xenforo core.

 

[Adam Howard]

What is "big community" for you? Users adding few hundreds posts per day?

A few hundred per hour, thousands per day.

What I am trying to say is that products (like XenForo) should adjust to most customer's usage.

While no development is perfect, XenForo does try their best to adjust to most customer's usage. And currently most customer's usage prefer the easy page navigation.

However, if you feel so strong about it.... You're welcome to have an add-on developed to accomplish this for your own needs.

 

[Eagle]

It is important to understand some of the key differences between forums. However Forums must not lose the core structural ideology. So I mean, I wish XenForo will always be the original forum. Of course some differences would be and will be, but not at all. At least in some cases.

And agree with Brogan.

 

[Digital Doctor]

This request should be renamed "Infinite Scroll". The Discourse infinite scroll works very well on mobile. I think it is excellent for small threads.

 

[jmurrayhead]

This request should be renamed "Infinite Scroll". The Discourse infinite scroll works very well on mobile. I think it is excellent for small threads.

That's a very good point.

 

[Donny]

Infinite scroll is a pain in the arse when it comes to monetising your forum too. I've recently been allowed 5 Adsense on a page instead of 3. I just scrolled down mashable for a few seconds and counted 22. The pattern seems to be one on the right in pageview, then one to the left, then one to the right, then one to the left. Never really showing more than 2 per page max. BUT I counted 22 and gave up, they clearly have infinite ads per page too.

If you're selling direct advertising by way of sidebar ads or whatever, that's also going to suck. Maybe you could go down the DFP route and place your advertisers ads with the google ads and whatnot and attempt to get google to allow you infinate ads but that's not really realistic.

And then if you need to consider a responsive menu system that's available when you're 600 posts down, on a mobile and laptop etc.

I can see some uses for it for news sites and whatnot but it just doesn't seem to be the way to go. I hate reading from mashables homepage due to the scrolling. I'd rather run a search or something these days.

I'd say let the lads concentrate their efforts on adding more popular features that are already being used in the forum world than create ones that could get abused or used incorrectly and screw up the awesome XF reputation.

That all said I've been browsing the AVForums.com homepage of late and found it pretty cool. But it isn't ad-heavy at all so I guess my ad-related waffling above doesn't apply.

 

[jauburn]

Forums are all about discussion. Why in "fresh" and "intuitive" forum software like XenForo threads' pagination still exists? It's not 1990. We have possibilities to kill it once for all. Discourse shows how thread view should looke like: there's no neeed for pagination because next posts are loaded without any page refresh; the only thing we need to do is scroll down.

Will XenForo implement feature like this?

I like this idea, and I'd like to see it as an option. All features that represent a radical departure should be options so that people can choose.