@yarmo There is no ethical issue when you remove the...

@yarmo There is no ethical issue when you remove the ads and tracking, as there is no incentive to encourage such behaviour.

The timeline pagination is simply a flatList with onEndReached logic, the non-ethical aspect comes in to play by exploiting that with ads or algorithms.

Like 7 Jul 2022 at 9:59 | Open on mastodon.social

10 comments

Caesar

@pixelfed @yarmo as a user I infinitely (ha) prefer infinite scroll over having to click "next" at the bottom of each page. But I also recognise @yarmo 's point about it potentially helping encourage harmful behaviour. Perhaps a user preference for this feature would be a good idea?

7 Jul 2022 at 10:08 | Open on indieweb.social

[DATA EXPUNGED]

Yarmo 🕊

@pixelfed that is not how psychology works and this statement frightens me. Ads and tracking are just the way to abuse the addictions created by unethical tricks such as endless scrolling!

You are still creating an experience that will hurt the mentally vulnerable by inciting them to stay on the app instead of enjoying life!

7 Jul 2022 at 11:16 | Open on fosstodon.org

moving to: @twann@tech.lgbt

@yarmo @pixelfed perhaps a good alternative would be what #Tusky does: a "Load more" button?

7 Jul 2022 at 11:56 | Open on fosstodon.org

Linux in a Bit 🐧

@twann @yarmo @pixelfed
I think Mastodon does that too... Maybe infinite scrolling can be opt-in because personally I don't find it that addictive
(probably because my brain doesn't have a built up mindless scrolling addiction that comes from from using something like Twitter in the past)

7 Jul 2022 at 12:13 | Open on linuxrocks.online

Linux in a Bit 🐧

@twann @yarmo @pixelfed
I think their reasoning is that the addictive part is the algorithmically enhanced lottery effect every time you scroll, not the scrolling itself.

7 Jul 2022 at 12:28 | Open on linuxrocks.online

DELETED

@yarmo @pixelfed Just a minor detail but if you got enough of them new users can be scared away when they find Pixelfed just a little bit more complicated than Insta… At least personally i'd find it extremely annoying to press "Load more" every few seconds

Maybe you could make the discover timeline have a load more button and the normal be infinite 🤔

Bc the personal timeline seems rather unproblematic in my eyes (at least if you don't follow to many people)

7 Jul 2022 at 12:32 | Open on mastodon.social

pixelfed

@yarmo Sorry for the confusion, we meant the home timeline infinite scroll. The local/public and network timelines have a finite limit of 400 posts by default and discover is limited even more.

Another aspect of our infinite scroll implementation is how we interject after a threshold is met to remind users about healthy use practices.

I agree that it's dangerous to have an infinite scroll feed without some sort of limitation, look forward to your feedback and how we can improve this!

9 Jul 2022 at 9:25 | Open on mastodon.social

Lapineige

@pixelfed if infinite scrolling is one key design part in generating addictive behavior, I don't see why it would be a good thing even if the project has no financial interest linked to such a behavior.
@yarmo

7 Jul 2022 at 12:52 | Open on mamot.fr