9 ms·

Twitter experiences longest global outage in years

60 points by IRP 4y ago

IRP 4y ago
Ongoing...
warrenm 4y ago
Funny ... my post got flagged, yours gets upvoted :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32095364 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32095364
- pc86 4y ago
  Yours is "Twitter's Down" while this is a link to an article; not that yours necessarily should have been flagged (although that's a community decision so apparently several people thought it should have been) but they're not the same post.
  - causi 4y ago
    He should've used the Tell HN: tag since he didn't link to an outside article.
  - warrenm 4y ago
    Had the content not been flagged, you would've seen: > As of 0848 EDT on 14 July > https://twitter.com https://twitter.com > https://tweetdeck.twitter.com https://tweetdeck.twitter.com :)
    - pc86 4y ago
      Yes I can see that (not sure if it's because I have `showdead` enabled or not, who knows). My point stands, I think.
iasay 4y ago
I hadn’t noticed. I am slightly proud of that.
- upupandup 4y ago
  Me neither. I am not on it enough to care and increasingly I am seeing less and less value from Twitter, especially after learning that less than 10% of it is actually active and most of the noise is coming from a cluster of individuals who will build narratives that ultimately benefit them.
- wutwutwutwut 4y ago
  Good thing that you could announce that prideness on this other social media then. ;)
- g051051 4y ago
  I'm more than slightly proud, actually. I can't remember the last time a "major" social media site had an outage that affected me. That includes Twitter, HN, Facebook, and Github (since that's turning into a social site now).
- WaitWaitWha 4y ago
  Any time a social media system goes down, I feel like Depth Gauge in Waterworld[0]. It is an end (albeit temporary) to lack of social contact (because they are too busy to meet in person or talk to me face to face), but with an ironic boom, I only hear how miserable they are because the social media is down. [0] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114898/characters/nm0696512 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114898/characters/nm0696512
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
macinjosh 4y ago
Bring back the fail whale!
briantakita 4y ago
The Twitter bots are on strike?
nylonmusk 4y ago
ID1452319 4y ago
Have they tried turning it off and turning it back on again?
SilverBirch 4y ago
I guess we'll see in the coming months whether this was just a one-off or whether the stress the company has been under has pushed out some of the more important people keeping the site up.
ldjkfkdsjnv 4y ago
Couldnt have anything to do with them needing to prove its not 50% bots
- gigatexal 4y ago
  - briantakita 4y ago
    I hope Twitter didn't pay you in TWTR to write this ;-) Bad management will eventually ruin good tech. It's a shame to see what Twitter has become after so much promise.
    - gigatexal 4y ago
      shiiieeet if i was paid in TWTR i'd have taken it ... I'd take stock over USD any day.
      - briantakita 4y ago
        You're right. There will probably be another price spike due stock buybacks paid for by another injection of helicopter money from the Fed.
puffoflogic 4y ago
Maybe the current hosting providers don't want to be involved in the discovery process of Twitter's lawsuit, and so the site had to be migrated on somewhat short notice.
dijonman2 4y ago
A little less outrage in the world today. Progress.
timcavel 4y ago
[dead]
troon-lover 4y ago
bob1029 4y ago
Hypothetically, what do we think the effect would be if twitter went down and never came back?
- tjpnz 4y ago
  Journalists might start engaging with the wider public again rather than constructing their stories from within an echo chamber.
- throwaway787544 4y ago
  Users'd probably just join Reddit. It's full of snark and outrage too Elon would make his own Twitter called Doge-r, and a company that developed it and also did construction, so he could have dump trucks called Dogers (as in bulldozer), jokes about "taking a dump", etc
- Ygg2 4y ago
  As tempting it is to write world peace and leave, that wouldn't be true. Biggest unofficial support channel would be closed. Also my large smut collection would be inaccessible.
- dspillett 4y ago
  A small short-lived productivity increase, followed by a mad rush of other services trying to spin up (or scale up if already running) and piling lots of man-hours into advertising themselves as the best replacement. Also many miles of column-space pontificating on the whys/wherefores, and a few people will try to sue because there was one little bit of irreplaceable information on there that is vital to them and they didn't have backed up elsewhere. Other than that, little or nothing of long-lasting consequence I expect.
- ok_coo 4y ago
  No hate to any of the engineers there, but honestly, it would be a net positive for society. The level of vitriol, hate, and performative outrage has reached up to the gods on Twitter. The valuable signal that comes out has long been overwhelmed by the noise. There are other platforms that largely fulfill the same purpose.
- 4y ago
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
labrador 4y ago
Unrelated but I'm surprised Twitter hasn't booted Elon Musk until he pays up
- nylonmusk 4y ago
  Twitter execs are smart - let him continue using twitter and keep digging his own ego driven grave. After all that's all he has done all these years on that platform.
  - labrador 4y ago
    Except he's mocking them and posting poop emojis at them. I guess he thinks the Twitter board and executive team consists primary of doormats
    - tablespoon 4y ago
      > Except he's mocking them and posting poop emojis at them. I guess he thinks the Twitter board and executive team consists primary of doormats IIRC, they used exactly that behavior as evidence in their lawsuit.
gravitate 4y ago
I was thinking when services go down like this it forces us to remind ourselves how reliant we are on these services. Also remember they are free and you don’t get a refund for the service being down due to a SLA clause. People expect Twitter to be high availability but don’t spend a cent on the platform, except for Advertisers, who will be hurt most.
JanneVee 4y ago
From the article: > Since then, the site’s importance to global politics and culture has grown, and a long-lasting outage could even have had a material effect on the Conservative party’s leadership election, where runners and riders have been trading barbs since Boris Johnson announced his resignation last week. This is downright dystopic and people don't get it. A countrys exceptional situation where a they get a new leader which is not being democratically decided by the people, but a minority of Tories that have the time to read "barbs" on Twitter. It is insane to think that the availability of a tech platform like Twitter has a material consequence on how the Tories elect their new leader. But if it is true that it has consequence on the result, a minority that have the time to write and read Twitter instead of working for the people(like the politicians are supposed to) are deciding the result of their leadership.
- tablespoon 4y ago
  > This is downright dystopic and people don't get it. A countrys exceptional situation where a they get a new leader which is not being democratically decided by the people, but a minority of Tories that have the time to read "barbs" on Twitter. That's not dystopian, it's just how that system of government works. Literally no system will satisfy everyone, and direct democracy has its own well-known flaws. For what it's worth, a lot of US liberals are currently fetishising parliamentary systems like the UK's.
  - JanneVee 4y ago
    "It is how the system works", is not getting it... Twitter is used by a minority yet it supposedly captures significant political power. It is really hard to explain it to someone who doesn't care how supposed work and think I mean that it is about "direct democracy". Elected politicians should be working for the people regardless they voted for them or not. They aren't supposed to write crap on twitter about the "other guys" within the same fucking party.
    - tablespoon 4y ago
      I think Twitter's a red herring. IIRC, in the UK the prime minister is chosen by the MPs from the majority party. It's not just the ones on Twitter, though Twitter might be one of the channels some of those members use for rhetoric to influence the final decision. That rhetoric will happen somewhere, Twitter or no. Also when it gets down to it, in an election the ultimate outcome is decided by the people who are on the fence, which is much smaller that the whole group.

60 points by IRP 4y ago

IRP 4y ago

Ongoing...

Funny ... my post got flagged, yours gets upvoted :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32095364 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32095364

pc86 4y ago
Yours is "Twitter's Down" while this is a link to an article; not that yours necessarily should have been flagged (although that's a community decision so apparently several people thought it should have been) but they're not the same post.
- causi 4y ago
  He should've used the Tell HN: tag since he didn't link to an outside article.
- warrenm 4y ago
  Had the content not been flagged, you would've seen: > As of 0848 EDT on 14 July > https://twitter.com https://twitter.com > https://tweetdeck.twitter.com https://tweetdeck.twitter.com :)
  - pc86 4y ago
    Yes I can see that (not sure if it's because I have `showdead` enabled or not, who knows). My point stands, I think.

iasay 4y ago

I hadn’t noticed. I am slightly proud of that.

upupandup 4y ago
Me neither. I am not on it enough to care and increasingly I am seeing less and less value from Twitter, especially after learning that less than 10% of it is actually active and most of the noise is coming from a cluster of individuals who will build narratives that ultimately benefit them.
wutwutwutwut 4y ago
Good thing that you could announce that prideness on this other social media then. ;)
g051051 4y ago
I'm more than slightly proud, actually. I can't remember the last time a "major" social media site had an outage that affected me. That includes Twitter, HN, Facebook, and Github (since that's turning into a social site now).
WaitWaitWha 4y ago
Any time a social media system goes down, I feel like Depth Gauge in Waterworld[0]. It is an end (albeit temporary) to lack of social contact (because they are too busy to meet in person or talk to me face to face), but with an ironic boom, I only hear how miserable they are because the social media is down. [0] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114898/characters/nm0696512 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114898/characters/nm0696512

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

macinjosh 4y ago

Bring back the fail whale!

briantakita 4y ago

The Twitter bots are on strike?

nylonmusk 4y ago

ID1452319 4y ago

Have they tried turning it off and turning it back on again?

SilverBirch 4y ago

I guess we'll see in the coming months whether this was just a one-off or whether the stress the company has been under has pushed out some of the more important people keeping the site up.

ldjkfkdsjnv 4y ago

Couldnt have anything to do with them needing to prove its not 50% bots

gigatexal 4y ago
- briantakita 4y ago
  I hope Twitter didn't pay you in TWTR to write this ;-) Bad management will eventually ruin good tech. It's a shame to see what Twitter has become after so much promise.
  - gigatexal 4y ago
    shiiieeet if i was paid in TWTR i'd have taken it ... I'd take stock over USD any day.
    - briantakita 4y ago
      You're right. There will probably be another price spike due stock buybacks paid for by another injection of helicopter money from the Fed.

puffoflogic 4y ago

Maybe the current hosting providers don't want to be involved in the discovery process of Twitter's lawsuit, and so the site had to be migrated on somewhat short notice.

dijonman2 4y ago

A little less outrage in the world today. Progress.

timcavel 4y ago

[dead]

troon-lover 4y ago

bob1029 4y ago

Hypothetically, what do we think the effect would be if twitter went down and never came back?

tjpnz 4y ago
Journalists might start engaging with the wider public again rather than constructing their stories from within an echo chamber.
throwaway787544 4y ago
Users'd probably just join Reddit. It's full of snark and outrage too Elon would make his own Twitter called Doge-r, and a company that developed it and also did construction, so he could have dump trucks called Dogers (as in bulldozer), jokes about "taking a dump", etc
Ygg2 4y ago
As tempting it is to write world peace and leave, that wouldn't be true. Biggest unofficial support channel would be closed. Also my large smut collection would be inaccessible.
dspillett 4y ago
A small short-lived productivity increase, followed by a mad rush of other services trying to spin up (or scale up if already running) and piling lots of man-hours into advertising themselves as the best replacement. Also many miles of column-space pontificating on the whys/wherefores, and a few people will try to sue because there was one little bit of irreplaceable information on there that is vital to them and they didn't have backed up elsewhere. Other than that, little or nothing of long-lasting consequence I expect.
ok_coo 4y ago
No hate to any of the engineers there, but honestly, it would be a net positive for society. The level of vitriol, hate, and performative outrage has reached up to the gods on Twitter. The valuable signal that comes out has long been overwhelmed by the noise. There are other platforms that largely fulfill the same purpose.
4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

labrador 4y ago

Unrelated but I'm surprised Twitter hasn't booted Elon Musk until he pays up

nylonmusk 4y ago
Twitter execs are smart - let him continue using twitter and keep digging his own ego driven grave. After all that's all he has done all these years on that platform.
- labrador 4y ago
  Except he's mocking them and posting poop emojis at them. I guess he thinks the Twitter board and executive team consists primary of doormats
  - tablespoon 4y ago
    > Except he's mocking them and posting poop emojis at them. I guess he thinks the Twitter board and executive team consists primary of doormats IIRC, they used exactly that behavior as evidence in their lawsuit.

gravitate 4y ago

I was thinking when services go down like this it forces us to remind ourselves how reliant we are on these services. Also remember they are free and you don’t get a refund for the service being down due to a SLA clause. People expect Twitter to be high availability but don’t spend a cent on the platform, except for Advertisers, who will be hurt most.

JanneVee 4y ago

From the article: > Since then, the site’s importance to global politics and culture has grown, and a long-lasting outage could even have had a material effect on the Conservative party’s leadership election, where runners and riders have been trading barbs since Boris Johnson announced his resignation last week. This is downright dystopic and people don't get it. A countrys exceptional situation where a they get a new leader which is not being democratically decided by the people, but a minority of Tories that have the time to read "barbs" on Twitter. It is insane to think that the availability of a tech platform like Twitter has a material consequence on how the Tories elect their new leader. But if it is true that it has consequence on the result, a minority that have the time to write and read Twitter instead of working for the people(like the politicians are supposed to) are deciding the result of their leadership.

tablespoon 4y ago
> This is downright dystopic and people don't get it. A countrys exceptional situation where a they get a new leader which is not being democratically decided by the people, but a minority of Tories that have the time to read "barbs" on Twitter. That's not dystopian, it's just how that system of government works. Literally no system will satisfy everyone, and direct democracy has its own well-known flaws. For what it's worth, a lot of US liberals are currently fetishising parliamentary systems like the UK's.
- JanneVee 4y ago
  "It is how the system works", is not getting it... Twitter is used by a minority yet it supposedly captures significant political power. It is really hard to explain it to someone who doesn't care how supposed work and think I mean that it is about "direct democracy". Elected politicians should be working for the people regardless they voted for them or not. They aren't supposed to write crap on twitter about the "other guys" within the same fucking party.
  - tablespoon 4y ago
    I think Twitter's a red herring. IIRC, in the UK the prime minister is chosen by the MPs from the majority party. It's not just the ones on Twitter, though Twitter might be one of the channels some of those members use for rhetoric to influence the final decision. That rhetoric will happen somewhere, Twitter or no. Also when it gets down to it, in an election the ultimate outcome is decided by the people who are on the fence, which is much smaller that the whole group.