diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/initializers/initNotifications.js b/app/assets/javascripts/initializers/initNotifications.js
index 7b65387dd..ab7de6e1e 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/initializers/initNotifications.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/initializers/initNotifications.js
@@ -156,8 +156,7 @@ function listenForNotificationsBellClick() {
 }
 
 function initPagination() {
-  // paginators appear at the end of each block of HTML notifications sent by
-  // the server, each time we paginate we're only interested in the last one
+  // paginators appear after each block of HTML notifications sent by the server
   const paginators = document.getElementsByClassName('notifications-paginator');
   if (paginators && paginators.length > 0) {
     const paginator = paginators[paginators.length - 1];
@@ -171,10 +170,17 @@ function initPagination() {
         .then(function(response) {
           if (response.status === 200) {
             response.text().then(function(html) {
-              const notificationsList = html.trim();
+              const markup = html.trim();
+
+              if (markup) {
+                const container = document.getElementById('articles-list');
+
+                const newNotifications = document.createElement('div');
+                newNotifications.innerHTML = markup;
+
+                paginator.remove();
+                container.append(newNotifications);
 
-              if (notificationsList) {
-                paginator.innerHTML = notificationsList;
                 initReactions();
               } else {
                 // no more notifications to load, we hide the load more wrapper
@@ -182,6 +188,7 @@ function initPagination() {
                 if (button) {
                   button.style.display = 'none';
                 }
+                paginator.remove();
               }
             });
           }
diff --git a/app/assets/stylesheets/notifications.scss b/app/assets/stylesheets/notifications.scss
index ae2c7ccb4..d4c7a18a0 100644
--- a/app/assets/stylesheets/notifications.scss
+++ b/app/assets/stylesheets/notifications.scss
@@ -410,5 +410,9 @@
 
   .load-more-wrapper {
     @include load-more;
+
+    button {
+      margin-top: 0;
+    }
   }
 }
diff --git a/app/controllers/notifications_controller.rb b/app/controllers/notifications_controller.rb
index 555bfe674..f82deeefc 100644
--- a/app/controllers/notifications_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/notifications_controller.rb
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ class NotificationsController < ApplicationController
     @notifications_index = true
     @user = user_to_view
 
+    @initial_page_size = 8
+
     # NOTE: this controller is using offset based pagination by assuming that
     # the id of the last notification also corresponds to the newest `notified_at`
     # this might not be forever true but it's good enough for now
@@ -13,7 +15,7 @@ class NotificationsController < ApplicationController
       num = 30
       notified_at_offset = Notification.find(params[:offset])&.notified_at
     else
-      num = 8
+      num = @initial_page_size
     end
 
     @notifications = if (params[:org_id].present? || params[:filter] == "org") && allowed_user?
@@ -21,9 +23,11 @@ class NotificationsController < ApplicationController
                      elsif params[:org_id].blank? && params[:filter].present?
                        filtered_notifications
                      else
-                       Notification.where(user_id: @user.id).order("notified_at DESC")
+                       @user.notifications
                      end
 
+    @notifications = @notifications.without_recently_aggregated_reactions_and_follows.order(notified_at: :desc)
+
     # if offset based pagination is invoked by the frontend code, we filter out all earlier ones
     @notifications = @notifications.where("notified_at < ?", notified_at_offset) if notified_at_offset
 
@@ -53,23 +57,19 @@ class NotificationsController < ApplicationController
 
   def filtered_notifications
     if params[:filter].to_s.casecmp("posts").zero?
-      Notification.where(user_id: @user.id, notifiable_type: "Article", action: "Published").
-        order("notified_at DESC")
+      @user.notifications.for_published_articles
     elsif params[:filter].to_s.casecmp("comments").zero?
-      Notification.where(user_id: @user.id, notifiable_type: "Comment", action: nil). # Nil action means not reaction in this context
-        or(Notification.where(user_id: @user.id, notifiable_type: "Mention")).
-        order("notified_at DESC")
+      @user.notifications.for_comments.or(@user.notifications.for_mentions)
     end
   end
 
   def organization_notifications
+    org_id = params[:org_id]
+
     if params[:filter].to_s.casecmp("comments").zero?
-      Notification.where(organization_id: params[:org_id], notifiable_type: "Comment", action: nil, user_id: nil). # Nil action means not reaction in this context
-        or(Notification.where(organization_id: params[:org_id], notifiable_type: "Mention", user_id: nil)).
-        order("notified_at DESC")
+      Notification.for_organization_comments(org_id).or(Notification.for_organization_mentions(org_id))
     else
-      Notification.where(organization_id: params[:org_id], user_id: nil).
-        order("notified_at DESC")
+      Notification.for_organization(org_id)
     end
   end
 
diff --git a/app/models/notification.rb b/app/models/notification.rb
index 052475a84..b0f2c5aae 100644
--- a/app/models/notification.rb
+++ b/app/models/notification.rb
@@ -3,12 +3,32 @@ class Notification < ApplicationRecord
   belongs_to :user, optional: true
   belongs_to :organization, optional: true
 
-  validates :user_id, presence: true, if: proc { |notifcation| notifcation.organization_id.nil? }
-  validates :organization_id, presence: true, if: proc { |notifcation| notifcation.user_id.nil? }
+  validates :user_id, presence: true, if: proc { |notification| notification.organization_id.nil? }
+  validates :organization_id, presence: true, if: proc { |notification| notification.user_id.nil? }
+  validates :user_id, uniqueness: { scope: %i[organization_id notifiable_id notifiable_type action] }
 
   before_create :mark_notified_at_time
 
-  validates :user_id, uniqueness: { scope: %i[organization_id notifiable_id notifiable_type action] }
+  scope :for_published_articles, -> { where(notifiable_type: "Article", action: "Published") }
+  scope :for_comments, -> { where(notifiable_type: "Comment", action: nil) } # nil action means "not a reaction"
+  scope :for_mentions, -> { where(notifiable_type: "Mention") }
+
+  scope :for_organization, ->(org_id) { where(organization_id: org_id, user_id: nil) }
+  scope :for_organization_comments, lambda { |org_id|
+    # nil action means "not a reaction"
+    where(organization_id: org_id, notifiable_type: "Comment", action: nil, user_id: nil)
+  }
+  scope :for_organization_mentions, lambda { |org_id|
+    where(organization_id: org_id, notifiable_type: "Mention", user_id: nil)
+  }
+
+  scope :with_recently_aggregated_reactions_and_follows, lambda {
+    where("notified_at < ?", 24.hours.ago).
+      where(action: %w[Reaction Follow])
+  }
+  scope :without_recently_aggregated_reactions_and_follows, lambda {
+    where.not(with_recently_aggregated_reactions_and_follows.arel.exists)
+  }
 
   class << self
     def send_new_follower_notification(follow, is_read = false)
diff --git a/app/views/notifications/_notifications_list.html.erb b/app/views/notifications/_notifications_list.html.erb
index 3ba382ebc..7924d6196 100644
--- a/app/views/notifications/_notifications_list.html.erb
+++ b/app/views/notifications/_notifications_list.html.erb
@@ -1,22 +1,9 @@
-<% num_notifications = @notifications.size %>
-
-<% @notifications.each_with_index do |notification, index| %>
-  <% next if notification.notified_at < 24.hours.ago && notification.aggregated? %>
-
+<% @notifications.each do |notification| %>
   <div
     class="single-article single-article-small-pic single-notification <%= "unseen" unless notification.read? %>"
     data-notification-id="<%= notification.id %>">
     <%= render notification.notifiable_type.downcase.to_s, notification: notification %>
   </div>
-
-  <%# Since pagination is offset based, the fastest way to retrieve the last known notification id is to %>
-  <%# ask Ruby when it is at the end of the loop %>
-  <% if index == num_notifications - 1 %>
-    <% sub_path = params[:org_id].present? ? "#{params[:filter]}/#{params[:org_id]}" : params[:filter].to_s %>
-    <div
-      class="notifications-paginator"
-      data-pagination-path="/notifications/<%= sub_path %>?offset=<%= notification.id %>"></div>
-  <% end %>
 <% rescue => e %>
   <% logger.error("Notification error - #{e.message} - #{notification.id}") %>
 
@@ -30,3 +17,10 @@
     If you see too many of these, please report it to <a href="mailto:yo@dev.to">yo@dev.to</a>!
   </div>
 <% end %>
+
+<% if @notifications.any? %>
+  <% sub_path = params[:org_id].present? ? "#{params[:filter]}/#{params[:org_id]}" : params[:filter].to_s %>
+  <div
+    class="notifications-paginator"
+    data-pagination-path="/notifications/<%= sub_path %>?offset=<%= @notifications.last.id %>"></div>
+<% end %>
diff --git a/app/views/notifications/index.html.erb b/app/views/notifications/index.html.erb
index 9519df54f..f5eb73cc0 100644
--- a/app/views/notifications/index.html.erb
+++ b/app/views/notifications/index.html.erb
@@ -64,16 +64,18 @@
       <% end %>
 
       <%= render "notifications_list", params: params %>
-
-      <%# not using "any?"" here because "notifications_list" already asks for ".size", a little optimization :) %>
-      <% if @notifications.size > 7 %>
-        <div class="load-more-wrapper">
-          <button id="load-more-button" type="button">
-            Load More
-          </button>
-        </div>
-      <% end %>
     </div>
+
+    <%# new or less active users that don't have a page worth of notifications
+        won't be shown the "load more" button %>
+    <% if @notifications.size >= @initial_page_size %>
+      <div class="load-more-wrapper">
+        <button id="load-more-button" type="button">
+          Load More
+        </button>
+      </div>
+    <% end %>
+
     <div class="side-bar sidebar-additional"></div>
   </div>
   <%= render "articles/fitvids" %>