10 ms·

This is quite valuable advise: "The original version of Discord was built in just under two months in early 2015. Arguably, one of the best databases for iterat

This is quite valuable advise: "The original version of Discord was built in just under two months in early 2015. Arguably, one of the best databases for iterating quickly is MongoDB. Everything on Discord was stored in a single MongoDB replica set and this was intentional, but we also planned everything for easy migration to a new database" Also the article links to Twitter blog, which gives similar point (it's from 2010): "We [Twitter] currently use MySQL to store most of our online data. In the beginning, the data was in one small database instance which in turn became one large database instance and eventually many large database clusters" [1] [1] https://blog.twitter.com/engineering/en_us/a/2010/announcing-snowflake https://blog.twitter.com/engineering/en_us/a/2010/announcing...

avodonosov 4y ago
The first version of reddit also used a single PostgreSQL instance apparently: https://github.com/reddit-archive/reddit1.0/blob/bb4fbdb5871a32709df30540685cf44c637bf203/data.lisp https://github.com/reddit-archive/reddit1.0/blob/bb4fbdb5871...
- MonkeyMalarky 4y ago
  Seems like sound advice? Starting with DB clusters would be premature optimization, but designing your schema with the expectation that it will be on multiple instances later is sane. Kind of like building a monolith with the expectation that certain components will eventually be moved out into their own services.
- andrewxdiamond 4y ago
  Reddit is perhaps not the best company to look at for operational excellence. They seem to be barely keeping the ship aloft
  - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
    Modern Reddit for me runs like ass and I have a 2021 4.2GHz 8 core Ryzen CPU. I can't imagine what it's like on older systems where even my work Intel 9th gen was braking the site.
    - MH15 4y ago
      It’s incredible how slow their website is. I understand (but am against) their motivation to push everyone to the app on mobile devices, but on desktop where am I going to go? My powerful computers both struggle to render the site.
      - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
        I don't understand your issue. The website runs fine on our M1 Pro MacBooks we use for development so the problem must be on your end. /s
        mhh__ 4y ago
        Runs like a old dog there too
      - andrewxdiamond 4y ago
        old.reddit.com is still alive! RES still works as well. You can live in a happy little bubble ignoring their current escapades
wodenokoto 4y ago
Twitter was quite famous for their fail whale page which would come up often. Reddit also had a lot of trouble keeping up with user visits. From a technical stand point, they aren’t great examples of scaling away from a simple mvp implementation. They did manage to give users something so good that users were willing to put up with the outages.
- immibis 4y ago
  They are good examples of not over-engineering at the beginning. Most early-Twitters don't become late-Twitter - they just die.

avodonosov 4y ago

The first version of reddit also used a single PostgreSQL instance apparently: https://github.com/reddit-archive/reddit1.0/blob/bb4fbdb5871a32709df30540685cf44c637bf203/data.lisp https://github.com/reddit-archive/reddit1.0/blob/bb4fbdb5871...

MonkeyMalarky 4y ago
Seems like sound advice? Starting with DB clusters would be premature optimization, but designing your schema with the expectation that it will be on multiple instances later is sane. Kind of like building a monolith with the expectation that certain components will eventually be moved out into their own services.
andrewxdiamond 4y ago
Reddit is perhaps not the best company to look at for operational excellence. They seem to be barely keeping the ship aloft
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  Modern Reddit for me runs like ass and I have a 2021 4.2GHz 8 core Ryzen CPU. I can't imagine what it's like on older systems where even my work Intel 9th gen was braking the site.
  - MH15 4y ago
    It’s incredible how slow their website is. I understand (but am against) their motivation to push everyone to the app on mobile devices, but on desktop where am I going to go? My powerful computers both struggle to render the site.
    - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
      I don't understand your issue. The website runs fine on our M1 Pro MacBooks we use for development so the problem must be on your end. /s
      - mhh__ 4y ago
        Runs like a old dog there too
    - andrewxdiamond 4y ago
      old.reddit.com is still alive! RES still works as well. You can live in a happy little bubble ignoring their current escapades

wodenokoto 4y ago

Twitter was quite famous for their fail whale page which would come up often. Reddit also had a lot of trouble keeping up with user visits. From a technical stand point, they aren’t great examples of scaling away from a simple mvp implementation. They did manage to give users something so good that users were willing to put up with the outages.

immibis 4y ago
They are good examples of not over-engineering at the beginning. Most early-Twitters don't become late-Twitter - they just die.