Add a "don't scroll with load new" option

[MysticalOS]

I like to pick up where i left off if I left app for a few hours. What I don't like is that the load new just auto scrolls to top, which then leaves me having to read in reverse until I "catch up" to where I left off.

Ideal would be that there is an option to load new that respects my current position but still loads new posts so I can continue reading in order and "catch up" on feed. I'm not only user like this that likes to catch up on what I missed, so we definitely need this option.

[seboslaw]

As mentioned before I have implemented the Bird app behavior in https://bsky.app/profile/skeetsapp.com (iOS / iPadOS / macOS) for the following feed and list-based feeds. So you'll stay where you were before in your timeline and can load new items above. Regular feeds are not supported since their sort order may not be chronological.

[DougAK]

But Skeets doesn’t yet preserve timeline position through restarts of the app, right, @Sebastian?

On Wed, Sep 4, 2024 at 11:38 AM Sebastian @.***> wrote:

As mentioned before I have implemented the Bird app behavior in https://bsky.app/profile/skeetsapp.com (iOS / iPadOS / macOS) for the following feed and list-based feeds. So you'll stay where you were before in your timeline and can load new items above. Regular feeds are not supported since their sort order may not be chronological.

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/bluesky-social/social-app/issues/976#issuecomment-2329400647, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACDIIPEBGNJU7XCSBSP2ROLZU4SP3AVCNFSM6AAAAAAZ7SFRM2VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDGMRZGQYDANRUG4 . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: @.***>

[BallistiX09]

As mentioned before I have implemented the Bird app behavior in https://bsky.app/profile/skeetsapp.com (iOS / iPadOS / macOS) for the following feed and list-based feeds. So you'll stay where you were before in your timeline and can load new items above. Regular feeds are not supported since their sort order may not be chronological.

Is it supposed to load above the load more posts button? Any time I've used it, it loads them downwards from that point, so I still need to scroll to the bottom of the new posts.

[kschults]

@plwhite Re:

The thing that I find astonishing is that there are actually users who prefer use case 2 - and not just a few, but so many that use case 1 not working is seen as an edge case feature enhancement. I suppose I should know from working in software development that one user's edge case quirk is another user's critical bug on the main line.

I saw someone post (can't find it again, sadly) that user research consistently shows that users overwhelmingly want case 2. I can't remember the exact number, but it was astonishingly high, 90% or more. This is probably why it hasn't been a high priority feature.

All that said, though, I'm here to register another voice in request on this feature.

[DougAK]

I was under the impression that even pre-Musk Twitter started generating a lot of resentment as it kept pushing its algorithmic feed and making it harder to default to the basic timeline. But the strict timeline was always an option, and third-party Twitter apps (RIP) emphasized making it easy to stay with it. When Musk’s Twitter killed third-party apps, that killed it for me and many others. I would think that anyone trying to build the service that takes its place (while doing more and doing it better, of course) would ensure that fundamental functionality. It would be a shame if Mastodon becomes the only Twitter while Bluesky becomes strictly algorithmic like Facebook.

On Wed, Sep 11, 2024 at 10:28 AM Karl Schults @.***> wrote:

@plwhite https://github.com/plwhite Re:

The thing that I find astonishing is that there are actually users who prefer use case 2 - and not just a few, but so many that use case 1 not working is seen as an edge case feature enhancement. I suppose I should know from working in software development that one user's edge case quirk is another user's critical bug on the main line.

I saw someone post (can't find it again, sadly) that user research consistently shows that users overwhelmingly want case 2. I can't remember the exact number, but it was astonishingly high, 90% or more. This is probably why it hasn't been a high priority feature.

All that said, though, I'm here to register another voice in request on this feature.

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/bluesky-social/social-app/issues/976#issuecomment-2343841742, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACDIIPC5CADZAWLPUPJ7S5DZWBHP3AVCNFSM6AAAAAAZ7SFRM2VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDGNBTHA2DCNZUGI . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: @.***>

[kschults]

Power users generally strongly favor a fully-chronological timeline, and are rather vocal in their criticisms. But it turns out that it's a very small minority. People will even say they want chronological, but in tests will prefer a touch of algorithm.

[DarkJedi]

Power users generally strongly favor a fully-chronological timeline, and are rather vocal in their criticisms. But it turns out that it's a very small minority. People will even say they want chronological, but in tests will prefer a touch of algorithm.

Did an algorithm write this? ;)

Chronological "following" timeline with continuation from where you last left off has been the default behaviour on Xitter for as long as I can remember (although admittedly most of my time there was in Tweetbot until it got nerfed). I don't think it's unreasonable to assume a large percentage of users who are moving from there over to Bluesky would want to experience their following timeline in a similar way. By all means, let the AI overlords decide whatever scattergun approach they want for the "Discover" TL, but let us decide for ourselves for our self-curated following TL.

Otherwise these UX tests of people that allegedly prefer the algo feed might just be measuring those who stuck around because they liked it or didn't care, as those who didn't have already given up and left.

[gaearon]

While unlikely to deter further +1 comments, I just wanted to note that the feature is obviously needed — we’d like “soft” pagination forwards where the posts are first fetched and then if you want to you can scroll to the top with another tap — but you can also catch up manually from the place you left off. There are some questions about how exactly it would be implemented, and how it would work for custom feeds, but at least for Following the desired behavior seems relatively clear. I think we’d want to get to implementing some version of this (even if limited) in the next few months but can’t guarantee it.

If you want to express support for this, please just use the “+1” reaction on the existing posts. It is not necessary to add many similar comments since they’re notifying everyone else in the thread. The feature is not implemented yet because we have a huge backlog of things that need to be implemented, not because we think it’s unimportant. We’ll get there.