HN Explorer

Ask HN: What has been difficult about eliminating pagination for HN?

7 points by abtinf ↗ HN
HN admins have noted that they are working on improving or eliminating HN’s approach to pagination.

What challenges have you faced in making the change? Technical? Traffic volume? Design and interface?

4 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 18.8 ms ] thread
abtinf
I’ve thought of many solutions to solve this over the years, but I always identify major problems that make pagination seem like the best compromise.
version_five
Personally I think the pagination should stay. I waste too much time on HN already, but I generally feel like I've seen what I need to by looking at the front page and maybe the first page or two of "New". Infinite scrolling would only lead to pointlessly scrolling through older stuff without a signal that I've seen enough. That's largely the point on other social media. I hope it doesnt happen here.
krapp
They're not planning on implementing infinite scrolling, rather just having the entire thread on a single page.
davismwfl
I honestly am good with the article pagination.

The only part of the pagination that I think is a bit annoying is comment pagination, like on the monthly who's hiring. Two things about it, one it can be a pain on limited bandwidth/device loading, and two the "More" at the bottom isn't super obvious. I once had posted a job ad and couldn't find it on the page and asked admins, to which then I felt stupid when they answered. But they were super kind and just told me it had dropped to a second page and to press more to find it. I totally missed the More at the bottom prior.

So I would think solving the comment pagination would be nice for mobile loading and just making it more user friendly. But I also don't care if they never solve it, now that I know how it works it isn't a big deal.