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?

 

[dethfire]

What happens to the quick reply and footer when you have threads that are hundreds and thousands of posts long? I like the concept of a button to load more. Classic pagination on mobile is a real PITA. Mostly because people's mobile styles have links and button way too small to tap easily.

 

[beerForo]

I like it as an option, so I did not "Like" the first post because I think pagination should still exist. What would be even better is have separate settings for desktop and mobile, for those that like pagination on dt, and infinite on mobile, and vice versa. Possibly ever per add-on. Flexibility and accommodation. Totally abandoning pagination would not be a smart move but it can be cumbersome in some areas.

 

[Kintaro]

What happens to the quick reply and footer when you have threads that are hundreds and thousands of posts long?

Take a look to heat maps and see how many users look at footers.
The quick reply can be hidden and displayed clicking to a button/link.

 

[doublespaces]

Take a look to heat maps and see how many users look at footers.
The quick reply can be hidden and displayed clicking to a button/link.

Every single person who cares about their privacy or wants to contact the website will 100% look there. Infinite scrolling is far from ideal in my opinion. A combination of swipe and click to load more for mobile/pc and the OPTION to infinitely scroll would certainly be good changes.

 

[frm]

Every single person who cares about their privacy or wants to contact the website will 100% look there.

Not even a valid argument in 2019 against infinite scroll. The newer generation knows how to find what they need and are trained differently than focusing on merely a footer for important links.

Case in point, Facebook; and, I could provide even more examples, but I think this proves my point of a generational gap and infinite scroll.

 

[doublespaces]

Not even a valid argument in 2019 against infinite scroll. The newer generation knows how to find what they need and are trained differently than focusing on merely a footer for important links.

Case in point, Facebook; and, I could provide even more examples, but I think this proves my point of a generational gap and infinite scroll.

View attachment 212835

No, you want to turn XenForo into Facebook or Reddit, which is bound to fail. The only people who will do what Facebook does is Facebook, you'll always be the store brand cereal by doing that.

My phone doesn't have physical buttons which means your computer keyboard shouldn't either. CASE. IN. POINT. Right? Wrongggg.

Infinite scroll is annoying when browsing high value, content dense webpages. Multi tasking, flipping between different sections of your website, doing searches, research and coming back to the same post to provide a followup is not something you're going to accomplish efficiently with infinite scroll. It sounds like you don't do any research to begin with so that might be why you don't understand. You don't know what you don't know as they say.

Forum posts generally are multiple sentences, often have photographs and the context of a single conversation concept can span many 'screens'. If you need to reference previous information or information found in a different section entirely then you'll see that infinite scroll is incredibly linear and cumbersome. God forbid you accidentally refresh the page, all the posts you were just looking at ARE GONE. You must scroll for ten minutes to get back to that same post. That is retarded.

For Facebook, this isn't a problem because what you have is easy unordered content that is consumable primarily in one 'screen'. and the next 'screen' is generally disconnected entirely from the previous screen. In the case of comments, it is clear they do not have the most efficient comments if you've seen the complicated nesting that reddit and sometimes facebook can be. "View more comments, view more comments, view more comments". Oh crap, I need to go back to the top again, "View more comments, view more comments". Being drilled down so microscopic CAN be very painful. Facebook does a fantastic job at accomplishing the goal they have set out to accomplish, but they are not serving high density content. They are serving memes, it is not hard to comprehend that. If you are using your forum to serve memes, then good luck, that has absolutely no bearing on why or why not web forums should have a footer or infinite scrolling.

Forums have become the archive's of the internet with information which can be continually referenced over long periods of time, so long as the information is relevant. Reddit and Facebook are the exact opposite and filling that void is exactly where Forums will thrive moving forward. Facebook is not good for having lengthy conversations and sharing valuable information. That post will disappear in about 8 hours and all that hard work you put into typing it will be lost.

So please, you can continue to want your forum to be like a social media site but the future of web forums will be sharing of information, documentation and having conversations of a 'higher' level than your social media counter parts.

I admin hundreds of Facebook groups, I get thousands of notifications daily and monetize them well so I don't need or care about your advice on how Facebook works. Happy 1 year anniversary at Xenforo.com by the way.

Infinite scroll should be an OPTION or better yet, a third party modification.

 

[frm]

Forums will thrive moving forward

This is where we can agree to disagree. Pick ANY forum from 2000 and tell me they'll thrive once more, if forums don't somehow adapt.

Happy 1 year anniversary at Xenforo.com by the way.

Irrelevant. But, thanks?

Infinite scroll should be an OPTION

I thought the suggestion forum was an area where you can make, you know, suggestions? Perhaps you too should like the first post, as it'd be beneficial to pretty much every other forum, other than yours, which have a younger demographic too. Except, weigh in that infinite scroll should be implemented but the option to have pagination should exist too.

 

[doublespaces]

This is where we can agree to disagree. Pick ANY forum from 2000 and tell me they'll thrive once more, if forums don't somehow adapt.

Oh goodie, I must have a lot of options. Since it seems you've already done the legwork, let me know 5 forums that are running forum software versions released in 2000 and I'll happily participate.

Irrelevant. But, thanks?

You're welcome.

I thought the suggestion forum was an area where you can make, you know, suggestions? Perhaps you too should like the first post, as it'd be beneficial to pretty much every other forum, other than yours, which have a younger demographic too. Except, weigh in that infinite scroll should be implemented but the option to have pagination should exist too.

I'll be casting my vote on a different suggestion, this one clearly states pagination should be removed which I completely disagree with. Also, if I had to scroll all the way back up to the first post and then back down to reply to your post, that would be a bit too much work, no thanks.

 

[frm]

Oh goodie, I must have a lot of options. Since it seems you've already done the legwork, let me know 5 forums that are running forum software versions released in 2000 and I'll happily participate.

Obviously there was a comprehension error here. Pick any 5 forums, even big boards, which obviously began on older vB/other software as XF didn't exist then and evolved with time to the vB5 or XF route from 2000 that hasn't suffered tremendous usage loss and/or SERP loss. I won't wait, cause I know there are 0.

Also, if I had to scroll all the way back up to the first post and then back down to reply to your post, that would be a bit too much work, no thanks.

Why would you have to do this (as you previously mentioned search) with a floating navbar, click the reply post you intend to reply to, multiquote it, AND have a floating "quick post" button.

This is so HTML4 mentality.

I'll be casting my vote on a different suggestion, this one clearly states pagination

I'm sorry, I thought you could weigh in on suggestions too. Got me there.

 

[IFireflyl]

I also do NOT want to see infinite scrolling on the forum. If Xenforo ever releases a CMS, I'm all for infinite scrolling on the CMS page(s). But the actual forum content itself should not (in my opinion) have infinite scrolling.

 

[jmurrayhead]

No, you want to turn XenForo into Facebook or Reddit, which is bound to fail. The only people who will do what Facebook does is Facebook, you'll always be the store brand cereal by doing that.

My phone doesn't have physical buttons which means your computer keyboard shouldn't either. CASE. IN. POINT. Right? Wrongggg.

Infinite scroll is annoying when browsing high value, content dense webpages. Multi tasking, flipping between different sections of your website, doing searches, research and coming back to the same post to provide a followup is not something you're going to accomplish efficiently with infinite scroll. It sounds like you don't do any research to begin with so that might be why you don't understand. You don't know what you don't know as they say.

Forum posts generally are multiple sentences, often have photographs and the context of a single conversation concept can span many 'screens'. If you need to reference previous information or information found in a different section entirely then you'll see that infinite scroll is incredibly linear and cumbersome. God forbid you accidentally refresh the page, all the posts you were just looking at ARE GONE. You must scroll for ten minutes to get back to that same post. That is retarded.

For Facebook, this isn't a problem because what you have is easy unordered content that is consumable primarily in one 'screen'. and the next 'screen' is generally disconnected entirely from the previous screen. In the case of comments, it is clear they do not have the most efficient comments if you've seen the complicated nesting that reddit and sometimes facebook can be. "View more comments, view more comments, view more comments". Oh crap, I need to go back to the top again, "View more comments, view more comments". Being drilled down so microscopic CAN be very painful. Facebook does a fantastic job at accomplishing the goal they have set out to accomplish, but they are not serving high density content. They are serving memes, it is not hard to comprehend that. If you are using your forum to serve memes, then good luck, that has absolutely no bearing on why or why not web forums should have a footer or infinite scrolling.

Forums have become the archive's of the internet with information which can be continually referenced over long periods of time, so long as the information is relevant. Reddit and Facebook are the exact opposite and filling that void is exactly where Forums will thrive moving forward. Facebook is not good for having lengthy conversations and sharing valuable information. That post will disappear in about 8 hours and all that hard work you put into typing it will be lost.

So please, you can continue to want your forum to be like a social media site but the future of web forums will be sharing of information, documentation and having conversations of a 'higher' level than your social media counter parts.

I admin hundreds of Facebook groups, I get thousands of notifications daily and monetize them well so I don't need or care about your advice on how Facebook works. Happy 1 year anniversary at Xenforo.com by the way.

Infinite scroll should be an OPTION or better yet, a third party modification.

TL;DR Having the option available to people who want to use it would only benefit forums. If you're reading a thread with useful information, you probably want to asynchronously load more content as you pass all the BS responses and find information that is absolutely valuable to you. Forums can often be an archive of useless information and opinions when you simply want a solution. Asynchronous loading of info doesn't change being able to continuously reference information from years ago. It just makes it easier to continue on with the topic at hand.

I also do NOT want to see infinite scrolling on the forum. If Xenforo ever releases a CMS, I'm all for infinite scrolling on the CMS page(s). But the actual forum content itself should not (in my opinion) have infinite scrolling.

What's the difference? Content is content. As more users are using (not PCs) it's important to have streamlined content loading available to them.

 

[doublespaces]

Obviously there was a comprehension error here. Pick any 5 forums, even big boards, which obviously began on older vB/other software as XF didn't exist then and evolved with time to the vB5 or XF route from 2000 that hasn't suffered tremendous usage loss and/or SERP loss. I won't wait, cause I know there are 0.

I didn't reply to that question because it is irrelevant to the discussion of being 'killed' once and for all, as this suggestion you are supporting is concerned. Also, you may consider the difference between 'comprehension error' and 'writing comprehension error'.

Why would you have to do this (as you previously mentioned search) with a floating navbar, click the reply post you intend to reply to, multiquote it, AND have a floating "quick post" button.

Lets say you have scrolled down Electrek to this page: https://electrek.co/page/402/

You have accidentally left this page or perhaps you did so intentionally. If you only know the home page: https://electrek.co, without editing the URL (not noob friendly or good UIX requirement) tell me what was on the page before, and the page before that? And the page before that? Unless you modify the URL which frankly, a lot of people don't know how to do (particularly the 'younger generation' that you speak about, folks who barely even know what a web browser is) you'd have to literally scroll for several minutes to get here and browsing anything in reverse order, 'infinitely scrolling up' generally doesn't work well. Not to mention, in order to view it in the same manner, you'd have to load 400 pages and a year's worth of webpages to get back to the position where you can peruse up and down as you were before.

If you don't understand how that is not ideal, then you are being intentionally obtuse.

 

[doublespaces]

TL;DR Having the option available to people who want to use it would only benefit forums. If you're reading a thread with useful information, you probably want to asynchronously load more content as you pass all the BS responses and find information that is absolutely valuable to you. Forums can often be an archive of useless information and opinions when you simply want a solution.

I agree, in the correct situation I like infinite scrolling. I do not like infinite scrolling on my forum and certainly do not like the concept of 'killing pagination once and for all' as this suggestion is requesting:

kill it once for all

I am a promoter of the 'Load more messages" which can be done by swiping. It is much more controlled, particularly for people who are data usage conscious and if infinite scrolling is added, I think it should be optional and that is not what this suggestion is about unfortunately.

Asynchronous loading of info doesn't change being able to continuously reference information from years ago. It just makes it easier to continue on with the topic at hand.

The format itself presents situations which aren't ideal. If you retain pagination and infinite scrolling, then I think it could be avoided perhaps. Not sure.

What's the difference? Content is content. As more users are using (not PCs) it's important to have streamlined content loading available to them.

I do like infinite scrolling in some contexts. But for me to want to actually use it, the pagination would still need to be there some how. For example, as you scroll, you'd pass the page break where you can see 'page 4' pass by with a page break line. Something like that. The ability to get back to that point quickly and to have the same access upwards and downwards from that moment without a crap load of scrolling.

 

[frm]

you'd have to literally scroll for several minutes to get here and browsing anything in reverse order

Or, you can save a user's last position in a thread, much like what is done now...

Not to mention, in order to view it in the same manner, you'd have to load 400 pages and a year's worth of webpages to get back to the position where you can peruse up and down as you were before.

And no, you'd load post X from 406 and X-10 and X+10 only to give a good "scroll experience". After they scroll closer to either end, you load more.

The problem is really that you don't understand the concept of newer web technologies so you refuse to accept the reality that it is possible. This is proven by Discourse, as it works in the same manner.

 

[IFireflyl]

The problem is really that you don't understand the concept of newer web technologies so you refuse to accept the reality that it is possible. This is proven by Discourse, as it works in the same manner.

I don't like the way Discourse works. To be honest, if I wanted software that functioned like Discourse I would have just used Discourse. I like having actual pages to move to/from in my forum content. Again, a CMS is different. If you're creating articles and such that people might find interesting it makes sense to be able to infinitely scroll through those. That's why I said if Xenforo ever launches a CMS I'm definitely okay with that being an infinite scroll. I still prefer non-infinite scrolling for a CMS because I feel like it makes it easier to find things when you use pages, but I'm okay with going the infinite scroll route because I can see how people would generally find that useful. Having said that, infinitely scrolling through threads is an absolute pain when you get to threads that have thousands of posts. If someone at Xenforo wants to create an OPTION for infinite scrolling or non-infinite scrolling I'm fine with that. But if Xenforo forces me to use infinite scrolling I'll leave and never look back because infinite scrolling through threads is annoying and time-consuming.

 

[frm]

Having said that, infinitely scrolling through threads is an absolute pain when you get to threads that have thousands of posts

This is where I think XF can come on top by including infinite scroll with pagination. Discourse scrolls by date whereas XF could scroll by page. That way, a user can much more easily reach page 406 as they could with the extra step of clicking "..." and jumping to a page with how it's done with pagination.

But all this is really moot with bookmarks too. If you can remember there is an important post on page 406 a year later without a bookmark, that's MENSA quality stuff right there.

Just my 2¢ on the matter and leaving my vote intact while unfollowing this discussion as it's really just banter from both sides at this point.

 

[expanserpb]

On discourse the scrolling works particularly well. I particularly like the little navigation widget that allows me to scroll through all the posts in a topic. This is much, much faster than clicking through pages. It even shows me the date of a given post as I use it.



On Tapatalk (eugh) when you reach the bottom of a page you can now click "load more posts" to add the next page of posts below.



There are many times when I want to be able to read posts on multiple pages by scrolling up and down, particularly on mobile.

I would greatly value this small feature. Particularly for mobile users.

 

[JamesBrown]

Well I just upvoted Deleted Member whoever he/she was. Great idea they had though +1 for infinite scrolling. Clicked a page number and being jerked back to the top is just so 2010. I'd like to see infinite scrolling for threads, media gallery and Resources. Thanks

 

[dethfire]

Well I just upvoted Deleted Menber whoever he/she was. Great idea they had though +1 for infinite scrolling. Clicked a page number and being jerked back to the top is just so 2010. I'd like to see infinite scrolling for threads, media gallery and Resources. Thanks

Will be a problem for search engine crawling.

 

[Chromaniac]

I am not a fan of infinite scrolling. But it definitely can be implemented in a way that Google understands. A lot of news websites essentially change your URL as you scroll down to a different news story.

WordPress on the other hand changed infinite scroll behavior this month because of infinite scrolling issues. One of them being, in some cases users cannot reach the footer of the website. Also it is not very friendly with screen readers. Though I cannot find that announcement right now.