[wruza]

The cost in DB operations is usually much more relevant than it.

As a result, a user (all of them) hits “next” again until a page looks like containing new posts. It’s multiple requests wasted.

Anyway, what exactly becomes messy?

[marcosdumay]

What a "page" means when enough things appear between them that they push stuff a page away? Are those things reordered? Do people expect to see the new things before they get to the old?

A "page" is a very ill-defined thing that can only exist if your stuff is mostly static. Queries are very different on dynamic content.

[wruza]

You’re overthinking (overquestioning) it. When a user hits “next”, they want to see next N posts from where they at, in order they chosen before, that’s it.

Since there’s no evidence of a mess still, I believe you’re projecting it from an overthought side that isn’t real.