5 ms·

lol, it's not dns (fb dns is back), it's not coincidence, it's not people coming to hn specifically to read about fb being down. it's the digital equivalent of

by a-dub 5y ago

lol, it's not dns (fb dns is back), it's not coincidence, it's not people coming to hn specifically to read about fb being down. it's the digital equivalent of the consumer goods shortages resulting from changed behavior during the lockdowns of 2020. the whole consumer/attention-economy internet is creaking under the load and it's kinda hilarious. https://downdetector.com/ https://downdetector.com/

dang 5y ago
I think it really is people coming to hn specifically to read about fb being down. What kills me is that we'd be humming just fine if the software I've been working on for so-long-I'm-embarrassed-to-tell-you had been rolled out by now. At this point the only solutions are non-technical. A la the Serenity Prayer, and waiting till tomorrow. Edit: it does seem to be better for community if things break occasionally, though. People can relate to sheepish devs under excessive load. Nobody relates to a perfectly oiled machine.
- nicoburns 5y ago
  I have no idea how much extra traffic you had to deal with today, but I'm always impressed with how gracefully HN seems to degrade under high load. There are increased page load times, and frequent "Oops, we couldn't serve your request messages", but the pages do load and trying page loads and comment posts actually works.
- Wowfunhappy 5y ago
  I have to say, I find it surprising that ycombinator hasn't hired another developer to work on HN. It's great that you're actually well-versed in the codebase, but you shouldn't be the lead moderator, lead customer support contact, and lead developer, that's nuts! Heck, I can't tell—are you merely the "lead" on those things, or are you the sole person? You often say "we" when talking about HN, but I can't tell if that's a royal we or not. I know that HN is meant to be low-resource, but if ycombinator thinks it has any value at all, they ought to be able to spare another developer. This is just basic organization management. Of course you haven't finished your software yet, you can't do everything!
  - dasil003 5y ago
    > but you shouldn't be the lead moderator, lead customer support contact, and lead developer of HN, that's nuts! Now you know why his name is dang!
  - BitAstronaut 5y ago
    I vote they hire user BitAstronaut when he finishes his degree in a few months. Seems like a pretty cool person.
  - nmstoker 5y ago
    I'm not particularly surprised. How much do you think the long term value gained from HN has been impacted by the slow down today? My bet would be not very much at all - I doubt there are few regular users who would be deterred from coming back. Plus there is no income stream to protect. Thus justifying a non-lean approach seems a stretch. Generally things appear to work pretty well here and the odd day where things aren't perfect isn't the end of the world.
    - Wowfunhappy 5y ago
      I agree it's not a significant problem if Hacker News goes down for a day. However, paginated threads really suck, and that's also a stop-gap pending performance improvements. And, it would generally be good if dang was freed up for e.g. moderating.
  - dang 5y ago
    I can tell you for sure that it's my problem, not YC's. They're all in favor of what you describe.
    - Akronymus 5y ago
      I can't seem to find a better comment to ask about this: What do you think about the SAFE stack? (I know that the HN backend is written on a completely different stack.) Do you think it will gain some popularity and/or is a competitive advantage over something like a plain lamp/lemp stack? Or do you expect it to languish and die? Really just curious what you think about it and would appreciate a reply if it isn't much trouble to you.
- ilaksh 5y ago
  Have you thought about doing a beta test for the new software? Really interested to see it. I assume the main improvement is performance? Actually, I almost never notice a performance issue with HN these days. Today was a rare exception.
- mst 5y ago
  Reminds me back in the day of irc.netgoth.org.uk getting flooded into unusability with people asking the obvious question anytime livejournal went down. Yes, we put it in /topic of the main channel. Yes, naturally, that reduced the flood by maybe 25%. All of this has happened before. All of this will happen again.
sellyme 5y ago
> it's not people coming to hn specifically to read about fb being down You know you're replying to the person who runs the site, right? I reckon they know more about what's causing it than you do.

by a-dub 5y ago

dang 5y ago

I think it really is people coming to hn specifically to read about fb being down. What kills me is that we'd be humming just fine if the software I've been working on for so-long-I'm-embarrassed-to-tell-you had been rolled out by now. At this point the only solutions are non-technical. A la the Serenity Prayer, and waiting till tomorrow. Edit: it does seem to be better for community if things break occasionally, though. People can relate to sheepish devs under excessive load. Nobody relates to a perfectly oiled machine.

nicoburns 5y ago
I have no idea how much extra traffic you had to deal with today, but I'm always impressed with how gracefully HN seems to degrade under high load. There are increased page load times, and frequent "Oops, we couldn't serve your request messages", but the pages do load and trying page loads and comment posts actually works.
Wowfunhappy 5y ago
I have to say, I find it surprising that ycombinator hasn't hired another developer to work on HN. It's great that you're actually well-versed in the codebase, but you shouldn't be the lead moderator, lead customer support contact, and lead developer, that's nuts! Heck, I can't tell—are you merely the "lead" on those things, or are you the sole person? You often say "we" when talking about HN, but I can't tell if that's a royal we or not. I know that HN is meant to be low-resource, but if ycombinator thinks it has any value at all, they ought to be able to spare another developer. This is just basic organization management. Of course you haven't finished your software yet, you can't do everything!
- dasil003 5y ago
  > but you shouldn't be the lead moderator, lead customer support contact, and lead developer of HN, that's nuts! Now you know why his name is dang!
- BitAstronaut 5y ago
  I vote they hire user BitAstronaut when he finishes his degree in a few months. Seems like a pretty cool person.
- nmstoker 5y ago
  I'm not particularly surprised. How much do you think the long term value gained from HN has been impacted by the slow down today? My bet would be not very much at all - I doubt there are few regular users who would be deterred from coming back. Plus there is no income stream to protect. Thus justifying a non-lean approach seems a stretch. Generally things appear to work pretty well here and the odd day where things aren't perfect isn't the end of the world.
  - Wowfunhappy 5y ago
    I agree it's not a significant problem if Hacker News goes down for a day. However, paginated threads really suck, and that's also a stop-gap pending performance improvements. And, it would generally be good if dang was freed up for e.g. moderating.
- dang 5y ago
  I can tell you for sure that it's my problem, not YC's. They're all in favor of what you describe.
  - Akronymus 5y ago
    I can't seem to find a better comment to ask about this: What do you think about the SAFE stack? (I know that the HN backend is written on a completely different stack.) Do you think it will gain some popularity and/or is a competitive advantage over something like a plain lamp/lemp stack? Or do you expect it to languish and die? Really just curious what you think about it and would appreciate a reply if it isn't much trouble to you.
ilaksh 5y ago
Have you thought about doing a beta test for the new software? Really interested to see it. I assume the main improvement is performance? Actually, I almost never notice a performance issue with HN these days. Today was a rare exception.
mst 5y ago
Reminds me back in the day of irc.netgoth.org.uk getting flooded into unusability with people asking the obvious question anytime livejournal went down. Yes, we put it in /topic of the main channel. Yes, naturally, that reduced the flood by maybe 25%. All of this has happened before. All of this will happen again.

sellyme 5y ago

> it's not people coming to hn specifically to read about fb being down You know you're replying to the person who runs the site, right? I reckon they know more about what's causing it than you do.