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It's interesting to note the popularity of the website, and the massive traffic it handled, despite the lack of everything we assume necessary for a modern (soc

It's interesting to note the popularity of the website, and the massive traffic it handled, despite the lack of everything we assume necessary for a modern (social media) website - no modern web frameworks - no microservices/kubernetes clusters - no algorithmic curation/moderation/recommendation algoritmhs One wonders just how much of the modern engineering developed in the past decades, that cost a fortune to develop and run is actually necessary or even beneficial for running a modern social media website

conradfr 2y ago
Should have had updated dependencies though.
potato3732842 2y ago
I worked for a major internet company until 2020. HN would be aghast how much "if we failed to provide this service a good chunk of the internet would either go down or sites wouldn't function properly and the stock market probably would dip" stuff runs on redundant pairs of LAMP stacks and other unsophisticated old stuff HN would turn up its nose at.
- TZubiri 2y ago
  "Redundant pair of LAMP stacks" Damn you got two of those? That's advanced magic
  - protocolture 2y ago
    Active/Passive and no one has ever done a failover test.
    - potato3732842 2y ago
      We did a failover test last time a motherboard failed. It went so well it made the news.
rcpt 2y ago
otoh the entire site is no longer running because they fell behind on updates
- torginus 2y ago
  yeah but the 'social media needs hyper-complex and opaque curation algorithms to control what the users see, otherwise it'd become unusable' argument is provably false. Companies just want to control the narrative and/or push ads/influencers/opinions into peoples faces, while trying to maintain the illusion of organic discussion.
Aerroon 2y ago
I think no algorithmic curation is its strength. It means that even if an echo chamber appears anybody can still post their opinion and it doesn't get downvoted into oblivion when people disagree.
milesrout 2y ago
Nobody that is over 30 thinks any of those things are necessary because we all remember them not existing and websites handling plenty of traffic fine.

conradfr 2y ago

Should have had updated dependencies though.

potato3732842 2y ago

I worked for a major internet company until 2020. HN would be aghast how much "if we failed to provide this service a good chunk of the internet would either go down or sites wouldn't function properly and the stock market probably would dip" stuff runs on redundant pairs of LAMP stacks and other unsophisticated old stuff HN would turn up its nose at.

TZubiri 2y ago
"Redundant pair of LAMP stacks" Damn you got two of those? That's advanced magic
- protocolture 2y ago
  Active/Passive and no one has ever done a failover test.
  - potato3732842 2y ago
    We did a failover test last time a motherboard failed. It went so well it made the news.

rcpt 2y ago

otoh the entire site is no longer running because they fell behind on updates

torginus 2y ago
yeah but the 'social media needs hyper-complex and opaque curation algorithms to control what the users see, otherwise it'd become unusable' argument is provably false. Companies just want to control the narrative and/or push ads/influencers/opinions into peoples faces, while trying to maintain the illusion of organic discussion.

Aerroon 2y ago

I think no algorithmic curation is its strength. It means that even if an echo chamber appears anybody can still post their opinion and it doesn't get downvoted into oblivion when people disagree.

milesrout 2y ago

Nobody that is over 30 thinks any of those things are necessary because we all remember them not existing and websites handling plenty of traffic fine.