Hating the "Load older posts" feature

[SerendipityJane]

No one asked for it, and if they did, this isn't what they want.

There isn't enough space in this box to explain how incredibly poor it is.

Where are people seeing this load new posts and infinite scroll thing? Is it only on some boards at the moment? I've checked on Chrome on android phone and on PC and nothing looks different.

😫😫😫

It really is terrible. I like to load a few long threads to read before getting on the underground - won't be able to do that anymore will I!

Go into a thread via "threads I'm on" and you'll see it...

I've done that too. Maybe it's not rolled out for all users yet?

Yeah, I find it odd, because it often suggests threads that are over a year old, (and haven't been posted on for over a year.) When you click on it you get a message saying 'heads-up, this thread hasn't been posted on for over a year! Why not start a new thread!'

Seems rather pointless.

Sorry, I've got it now. I had to change my settings to load all instead of 25 per page. That really is shit. It just jumps about and makes no sense.

I'm going back to 25 per page which works for me but totally in support of making this an optional setting for those who like the load all option. This new version is terrible.

You're talking about something else completely!

this is about creating a faster and better performing website

If this was the aim it has failed miserable. It's slower and performing badly.

Absolute jokes 🤣

Better performing for who exactly because for me it's an absolute shit show!

Yes, and this other issue was solved for everyone who rightly hated it by providing a setting that allows it to be turned off. No reason HQ couldn't listen to all this feedback and provide a setting to turn this off too

I suspect we are doing the testing.

I really do not like this feature. Having to keep clicking on the button to see the full thread.

Hi all,
The reason we brought in infinite scroll was to address the long-standing issue we've had of 1000-post threads crashing. But clearly there are some other issues it causes that we need to work so we're going to roll it back now and do some more work on it. Many thanks for the input and apologies for any frustration this morning.

But clearly there are some other issues it causes

I rest my case.

Another vote for "this is garbage".

Slow loading times and crashes shouldn't be an issue on any semi-recent tech, regardless of device type; until recently I was using a base model MacBook from 2017 and, while it sounded like a jet engine if I opened Google maps, it had no problem with a lengthy MN thread. Also, the building I work in is like a lead-lined casket and everything still loads fine, even using mobile data instead of wifi.

If anyone is struggling with loading times, they can fix it on their end by changing their view to pages. What sense is there in making the user experience worse across the board?

And it's allegedly to stop the page from jumping around. Well, yesterday I was trying to scroll to the bottom of a thread and every time I thought I'd got there, a bunch of comments loaded and I was sent back up the page. Bloody awful.

If that’s the point of it, I would rather have threads limited to 500 posts instead of having a clunky ‘feature’ like this implemented. Even without all the other issues it was causing, I can’t see why this would improve the overall user-experience when reading a longer thread. We already have bookmarks, we don’t need something that randomly takes us to parts of a thread we don’t necessarily want to be at and limits what can be seen. Simply scrolling up and down is fine, some things don’t need fixing or ‘improving’. Don’t make it more complicated than it needs to be.

Thanks for switching it off, MNHQ. It was terrible.

Thanks for listening to the feedback @JustineMumsnet 🙂 I agree that long threads are slow to load and it's great that you're looking into ways to address this, but this new implementation does seem to cause more problems than it solves unfortunately.

Do you have a vacancy for someone with HCI knowledge?

When I'm on my laptop I tend to do Control F to find the posts I last made on a thread. When I do this now, the posts are limited to what appears on my screen rather than on the full thread. It's very frustrating!

Oh was it because I load the entire thread in one?

I don't want that changed. I'm a fast reader. Having to load more would annoy me, even if it was working properly.

I use the find function on my android too. It's really convenient.

Yey!!!
I may stay!!

But dont do it again!!!😠

Please, please, please do not bring back this feature, @JustineMumsnet - it made using the site, and particularly reading long threads, irritating beyond belief.

If you are going to tinker with the site, why not do something useful and stop it omitting the capital letter at the beginning of a new paragraph.