This is just terribly irresponsible. Given how central we now know that infinite scroll is the addictive behavior of social media, there are bound to be legal ramifications for someone using Discourse software.
Worth separating the mechanism from the harm here. The research on addictive social media design points to algorithmic curation, variable-reward feeds, and engagement optimisation, not infinite scroll as a standalone feature. Discourse doesnât have any of that. Itâs a flat, chronological, near-completely unmanipulated list with no algorithm, no sponsored content, and no features designed to keep you scrolling. The scroll just replaces a ânext pageâ button.
The legal concerns youâre referencing apply to platforms deliberately engineering compulsive use. A dry topic list that happens to not have page numbers doesnât meet that bar.
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Infinite scroll (or, more generally, bottomlessness) is consistently pointed to as one of the major tools that are intentionally designed for addictiveness.
And there are thousands or tens of thousands of Discourse instances designed with a lot of different purposes. Some of them (like mine) live within an academic setting, where this issue is quite sensitive. The fact that Discourse now incorporates AI very easily adds to this risk as well.
I think you are grossly underestimating the risk and seriousness of this issue.
My email clients (mobile and desktop) all have infinite scroll and my emails are definitely not addictive.
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Discourse making it easy to integrate AI doesnât change the scroll mechanic, and that risk would apply equally to a paginated list if the content being generated is the problem.
Discourse is bottomless (on old forums, and even then there is an eventual limit) in the way a long book is bottomless. Social media is engineered to be addictive. Conflating them understates how specifically targeted the harmful design patterns are.
if Discourseâs defaults are genuinely incompatible with your institutionâs requirements, there are other tools better suited to that context.
Either way, the support question has been answered, so unless there are more suggestions for the OPs workaround, I suggest we drop the debate here.
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Ah - I think you are right. It worked on our âlanding pageâ as we suppressed the topic list (that site is now defunct).
But I do wonder if it could be quite easily modified to show on infinite lists.
do you have sources on any of this? they would go a long way towards making a case
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there are lots of studies on this and how infinite scrolling on social medial platforms is a factor that enables such behavior as âdopamine scrollingâ, âdoomsday scrollingâ, and contributes to negative effects on mental health:
Summary
Dopamine-scrolling: a modern public health challenge requiring urgent attention - PMC
Social media platforms employ sophisticated algorithms and design features that capitalise on basic psychological principles to maintain user engagement. These include suggestions, auto-play, pull-to-refresh, infinite scrolling, and social investment mechanisms. The integration of short-form video content has been particularly effective at triggering psychological patterns that keep users in a continuous scrolling loop.
The Horrors of Doomscrolling & its Impact on Mental Health
This is compounded by the fact that social media platforms have blessed us all with infinite scroll powers, the ability to have unlimited access to content with no embedded stops. Thus, it has morphed into more than just negative consumption, and instead represents an overabundance of digesting content.
The Psychology of Doomscrolling: Why Apps Keep You Hooked
Infinite Scroll â The Endless Feed That Never Stops
The infinite scroll feature was introduced by UX designer Aza Raskin in 2006, originally as a way to improve user experience by removing the need to click ânext page.â Ironically, it became one of the most powerful mechanisms of digital addiction.âBy removing natural stopping cues (like page breaks or loading pauses), infinite scroll eliminates the tiny moments that might remind us to stop. Psychologists call these âdecision pointsââbrief pauses where our brains can evaluate whether to continue. Without them, users lose track of time and enter what researchers call a âflow trapââa state of passive engagement that can last for hours.
A Frontiers in Psychology study (2022) found that continuous content exposure reduces self-control and increases compulsive use, especially during emotionally heightened periods (like the pandemic). People werenât consciously choosing to scroll longer; the design made it effortless to do so.
Endless scrolling can dysregulate the nervous system and also appears to cause mental health symptoms like depression and anxiety
As digital technologies evolve, addictive algorithms and designs (aADs) have become a significant public health concern, particularly for older adults, a demographic often overlooked in digital addiction (DA) discourse. Compared to younger users, some older adults may face increased susceptibility to aADs due to factors such as cognitive changes, social isolation, physical comorbidities, or limited digital literacy. These designs, which exploit features like infinite scrolling, are associated with higher risk of compulsive use and may correlate with long-term impacts on cognitive health, social functioning, and quality of life for certain subgroups of older adults
but itâs just what chapoi said
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and for the record, i love Discourseâs infinite scrolling and hope to never see pagination on it. it just works better for forums in my opinion. i guess the question for me is: are forums, and Discourse in particular, to be put in the same category as social medial platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, X/twitter, Linkedin, whatsapp, etc.? iâm not so sure about that⌠
i guess my thought is that pagination is a nuisance in a forum format of flat discussions and it simply isnât going to stop people from going to the next page to continue. at least i donât remember it stopping me before, unless the page didnât load lol. 
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@Lilly posted several references from the mental health perspective on this issue.
I think itâs also worth mentioning that there could be potential legal ramifications whether one believes their platform is addictive or not. In the US, where I live, at least three states (CA, MN, and NY) have already passed laws requiring warning labels when certain features are present and similar laws are under consideration in other states. The New York law, for example, âRequires warning labels on social media platforms which provide an addictive feed, autoplay, infinite scroll, like counts, and/or push notificationsâ.
Three of those things are widely used on many Discourse forums but just one seems nearly impossible to disable.
I understand that people like infinite scroll - I like it. I donât understand the reticence to offer the option, though. Iâve seen posts indicating that itâs a technical challenge and I donât doubt that. Thatâs all the more reason the core team should tackle it, rather than some third party.