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I wanted to use it! Originally I was targeting this API, but when I was getting a huge number of 500 errors when I was developing. The comments to the right of

I wanted to use it! Originally I was targeting this API, but when I was getting a huge number of 500 errors when I was developing. The comments to the right of the page all complain about the stability of the service and it all was just too frustrating to use while I wanted to get something up fast. Also, keep in mind that the tool only scrapes one HN page per crawl (the home page). It's up to the consumer to be polite, but I hope that this tool is used responsibly.

jacquesm 15y ago
I'm sure your intentions are good. Did you take up the errors issue with the makers of the api? HN is built using a homebrew stack, it's a miracle it performs as well as it does. What you could do is cache the results and point your tool at the cache, that would already be much better. After all, if your conclusion is that the HN api is broken then maybe provide a better API rather than a tool that hits the source?
- willvarfar 15y ago
  > HN is built using a homebrew stack, it's a miracle it performs as well as it does. Surely it'd be sloppy oversight if the HN site couldn't be hosted on a homebrew stack? People seem to imagine you need a constellation of mongo and load balancers and everything else just as a baseline for a helloworld web-app. Paul rocks.
  - jacquesm 15y ago
    HN traffic is pretty high. Also, I believe that RTM had a hand in optimizing HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2120756 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2120756 And comparing HN to a helloworld web-app is simplifying things a bit, the fact that it is sparsely designed does not mean there isn't a significant amount of work done under the hood.
joering2 15y ago
I dont blame you. I looked at it couple times and at first HN API was an interesting project. Then author started deceasing features and now I have an impression its been pretty much abandoned for a while. I would rather built my own API (given how rather simple HN html code is) and be hitting HN website with my spider from my own IP rather than use HN API.

jacquesm 15y ago

I'm sure your intentions are good. Did you take up the errors issue with the makers of the api? HN is built using a homebrew stack, it's a miracle it performs as well as it does. What you could do is cache the results and point your tool at the cache, that would already be much better. After all, if your conclusion is that the HN api is broken then maybe provide a better API rather than a tool that hits the source?

willvarfar 15y ago
> HN is built using a homebrew stack, it's a miracle it performs as well as it does. Surely it'd be sloppy oversight if the HN site couldn't be hosted on a homebrew stack? People seem to imagine you need a constellation of mongo and load balancers and everything else just as a baseline for a helloworld web-app. Paul rocks.
- jacquesm 15y ago
  HN traffic is pretty high. Also, I believe that RTM had a hand in optimizing HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2120756 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2120756 And comparing HN to a helloworld web-app is simplifying things a bit, the fact that it is sparsely designed does not mean there isn't a significant amount of work done under the hood.

joering2 15y ago

I dont blame you. I looked at it couple times and at first HN API was an interesting project. Then author started deceasing features and now I have an impression its been pretty much abandoned for a while. I would rather built my own API (given how rather simple HN html code is) and be hitting HN website with my spider from my own IP rather than use HN API.