Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Infinite scroll
Raised as a usability problem by 294 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 134 threads.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Scrollbar jumps and position is lost as content loadsUnreviewed
20092026- Having to keep hitting 'next page' mid-conversation disrupts real-time reading2026-07-14
- Content takes noticeable time to load after reaching the bottom of the scroll2026-07-13
- Page loads more content and jumps while dragging scrollbar, losing your place2026-05-12
Keeps people scrolling longer than they intendUnreviewed
20092026- Endless scrolling keeps people engaged and makes it hard to stop2022-09-10
- Keeps people scrolling longer than they intend, working against their own interests2022-09-10
- Endless feed makes people keep scrolling without a natural stopping point2022-07-21
Browser slows to a crawl after prolonged scrollingUnreviewed
20092026- Page gets slower and chuggy as more items accumulate on scroll2024-03-17
- Images slow down while scrolling and browsing progress can't be saved for later2020-06-19
- Browser slows to a crawl after scrolling, and reading position is lost on reload2016-04-17
Can't jump to arbitrary pages or return to seen itemsUnreviewed
20092026- After a page refresh, earlier posts can't be reached by scrolling back2026-07-14
- Posts seen while scrolling can't be found again because the feed refreshes and search is unusable2023-07-11
- Can't jump to arbitrary pages or return to previously seen items2022-08-21
Can't stop autoplay video or disable infinite scrollingUnreviewed
20092026- Infinite scrolling and autoplay push users into watching more than they chose2026-09-10
- Users can't stop full-page autoplaying video or disable infinite scrolling without legal risk2025-07-19
- Videos autoplay and stop after scrolling, forcing an extra decision the user didn't make2022-03-07
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Infinite scrolling and autoplay push users into watching more than they chose2026-09-10
- Footer is unreachable because infinite scroll keeps loading more content2026-09-08
- Hard to return to a previous position in the list2026-07-27
- Infinite scroll breaks browser Ctrl-F search and slows loading progressively2026-07-27
- Users can't Cmd-F to search filtered results in infinite scroll2026-07-27
- Post vanishes after auto-reload, so user can't find it again and back button fails2026-07-15
- Breaks back button, linking to positions, search, and Ctrl-F; slows down over time2026-07-14
- Ctrl-F only finds content that has loaded, so infinite scroll limits search2026-07-14
- Infinite scroll feeds are impossible to return to after time away and start lagging2026-07-14
- After a page refresh, earlier posts can't be reached by scrolling back2026-07-14
- Makes footer links impossible to click or read2026-07-14
- Having to keep hitting 'next page' mid-conversation disrupts real-time reading2026-07-14
- Infinite scroll makes a usable page unusable for the reader2026-07-14
- Can't keep place in the list or jump ahead or back2026-07-13
- Footer links can't be reached because infinite scroll keeps loading more content2026-07-13
- Content takes noticeable time to load after reaching the bottom of the scroll2026-07-13
- Infinite scroll breaks the back button, so users can't return to where they were2026-07-13
- Page loads more content and jumps while dragging scrollbar, losing your place2026-05-12
- Animation keeps playing after scrolling stops; scrolling doesn't feel like scrolling2026-03-10
- Scale indicator moves in jerky stutters while the rest updates smoothly2026-03-10
- Can't reach the bottom, so users give up after a few loads2026-03-07
- Back button returns to page 1 instead of the scroll position2026-03-07
- Scrollbar and browser history/URL get messed up when next article loads2026-02-14
- Hold-then-drag marking with a mouse feels clumsy; hold delay too long2025-12-11
- Hard to reset a page to its blank state; refreshing or going back takes too many steps2025-11-02
- Can't scroll one screen at a time on mobile, making reading hard2025-08-12
- Users can't stop full-page autoplaying video or disable infinite scrolling without legal risk2025-07-19
- The looping scroll interface is confusing to the person browsing2025-05-23
- Scrollbar position no longer shows where you are in the article2025-05-11
- Headline gets cut off because page is wider than the mobile viewport2024-09-05
- Infinite scroll breaks the back button, so returning to results fails2024-06-26
- Hard to find something seen before while scrolling endlessly2024-05-22
- Makes it hard to find specific results again and reach footer links2024-03-23
- Makes it almost impossible to find historic content2024-03-18
- Page gets slower and chuggy as more items accumulate on scroll2024-03-17
- Pharmacy wouldn't fill the prescription without prodding and took a while to bill the promotion2024-03-06
- Footer keeps getting pushed away as new content loads, so it can't be reached2024-02-14
- End key doesn't jump to the page end because infinite scroll keeps loading content2023-11-17
- Scrollbar gives no sense of position or length on lazy-loading pages2023-10-13
- Loading more content breaks the user's established sense of position in the document2023-10-13
- Infinite scrolling makes the footer impossible to reach2023-08-06
- Infinite scroll forces hours of scrolling before the page can be searched with Ctrl+F2023-07-18
- Posts seen while scrolling can't be found again because the feed refreshes and search is unusable2023-07-11
- Search only finds text currently visible because earlier content unloads while scrolling2023-06-24
- User has to wait for next content to load while scrolling2023-01-28
- Gesture on phone loses place, and it takes ages to find where I was2022-10-10
- Endless scrolling makes it easy to keep consuming doom with no natural stopping point2022-09-29
- Long infinite-scroll lists become very slow, taking seconds to paint while scrolling2022-09-11
- Scrolling up is glitchy when a page is loaded in the middle2022-09-11
- Back button returns to top of list, forcing users to rescroll through already seen content2022-09-11