Add "Load more" button to the top of timeline instead of having to wrestle the scroll back and fourth to trigger infinite scroll

[MadLittleMods]

Your use case

What would you like to do?

Add a "Load more" button to the top of timeline instead of having to wrestle the scroll back and fourth to trigger infinite scroll. Basically an alternative to the intersection observer. Inspired by https://gitlab.com/gitterHQ/webapp/-/issues/2289

Why would you like to do it?

When I want to scroll back many days, I keep scrolling up over and over and over. Oftentimes, the infinite loading does not trigger unless I scroll back down and up to hit the top. In any case of the infinite scrolling problem being fixed, it would be nice to add a manual action to go and fetch the next page of scrollback.

This helps when the timeline fails in any case and for any of the future regressions and bugs:

• Scrolling: Ability to scrollback can get stuck #18325
• Scrolling: Stuck in scroll loop #23208

Have you considered any alternatives?

No response

Additional context

UI References

Google photos has infinite scrolling and "Show more results" button once you hit the soft-limit:

[SimonBrandner]

I am not sure I understand why would we want to do this, afaict, this would be a BIG regression in UX, so I'd rather see the scrolling issues fixed properly...

Also, doesn't seem like O-Occasiaonal

[MadLittleMods]

It happens regularly for me. I reach the top of the timeline in a room and it just stops. I just reproduced it again 4x now scrolling back a few days in the Element internal room (on macOS, Windows, desktop, browser). Then I have to scroll down and back up for it to trigger the infinite loading again. Fixing this would be great.

But infinite loading could be broken in any number of ways undefined into the future forever regardless. Having this "Load more" marker indicates that there is more to the room if anything goes wrong and the user is able to kick the timeline back into shape and loading more again. The infinite loading icon can even replace the "Load more messages" which is seamless when everything is working as expected.

[dbkr]

Sounds like the bug here is that sometimes infinite scrolling breaks. This could be a workaround, but we'd generally make the issue reflect the problem rather than the solution.

[MadLittleMods]

Fixing infinite scrolling should definitely be a separate issue (haven't made one yet) 👍. Separately, this is an idea to overcome any failures even outside of the current one I'm experiencing. The goal is to make error/fail scenarios better.