13 ms·

That's a really nice status dashboard, tracking and publicly displaying your 98th% is really cool. On the other hand stuff like this: "13:17 UTC We are seeing

by cagenut 14y ago

That's a really nice status dashboard, tracking and publicly displaying your 98th% is really cool. On the other hand stuff like this: "13:17 UTC We are seeing unicorns ..." Comes off as un-professional at exactly the wrong moment.

tinco 14y ago
How is that un-professional? Unicorns mean errors for github, and they report them. This is more professional reporting than most companies do.
- recursive 14y ago
  > Unicorns mean errors for github I have no idea what this means, but I can see how the idea of coming up with an alternate language in which fantasy creatures represent things we already have established words for might seem unprofessional
  - stock_toaster 14y ago
    Quite literally, the unhandled error page on github shows a unicorn. As seen on this google image search result[1]. It appears they have put up an octocat "we are down" temporary static page right now though... [1]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beatak/4008687328/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/beatak/4008687328/
    - 1qaz2wsx3edc 14y ago
      Additionally they could be referring to their use of `Unicorn: Rack HTTP server for fast clients and Unix` http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&authuser=0&biw=1920&bih=982&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fblog%2F517-unicorn&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iw&ei=KlbWUNrGAoSp2gWKooCIBg http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?um=1&hl=en&...
  - tinco 14y ago
    The term unicorn actually comes from the fact that they run the 'unicorn' webserver. When a webapplication error occurs unicorn catches it and displays an error to the visitor. They prettied that error up with a pretty image of a unicorn and a small explanation that something went wrong. So when they say 'we saw unicorns' they literally saw (reports of people seeing) pictures of unicorns. Now I understand that might confuse someone who does not regularily use github, but it is just a term that is in their jargon and I see no reason why they should market-speak that up in an intermediate status message. (Note that these status messages are not press releases but reports that engineers make during the discovery process)
  - msbarnett 14y ago
    There's a picture of a unicorn on their error page. Via natural metonymy, seeing an increase in unicorns means they're seeing an increase in errors. It's the exact same linguistic process that lets Americans refer to the executive branch of government as "the white house". I'd hardly call it unprofessional.
  - tarkwyn 14y ago
    I'd disagree. Having an easily identified image shown when a particular error is thrown can be really helpful when diagnosing problems, particularly when a customer / user is trying to communicate the problem with the site's support team. It's also quirky and friendly. Unicorns are also supposed to be these rare, mythical beasts which I'd say is exactly the kind of imagery you want representing your server errors.
shadowmint 14y ago
Can't disagree more. Gives me the impression there are actually real people trying to fix things, not just blank-faced robo admins following company policy HOWTO-Fix guides. That github isn't a blank sheet devoid of life and emotion and all 'professional' is the reason I'm willing to shrug off downtime like this. If anything, I really feel for whoever posted: We do not expect this to have visible impact to customers, but will update status if that changes. Ouch. You never ever want to follow that up with a post in red.
- chacha102 14y ago
  Hopefully it means that they thoroughly thought this through before planning the maintenance, and through their due diligence, they concluded that customers shouldn't see any problems, and thus decided to go forward. Just shows people aren't perfect. Haven't we all been there? (I do agree though that it does feel like a slap in the face to say: "Hey there shouldn't be any problems! Never mind, we were wrong...")
ricardobeat 14y ago
Unicorns are the illustration for server error pages.
pragone 14y ago
Likewise - I haven't the slightest idea what "unicorns" are in this context.
- glanotte 14y ago
  unicorn is their web server for rails. http://unicorn.bogomips.org/ http://unicorn.bogomips.org/
- syncsynchalt 14y ago
  The github error page is an angry unicorn. Similar to ars technica's moonshark, or twitter's failwhale.
jeffbarr 14y ago
Come on, really? Did you ever have a piece of code that should be impossible to reach under normal conditions? Did you put a message there to remind yourself that the case in question should never, ever occur? That could be a unicorn. For extra credit, if you have put these messages in your code, have you seen all of them at one time or another? I certainly have!
csense 14y ago
Other posters have noted where the terminology comes from. But you should really learn to take the meaning of an unknown term from context if you don't know what it means. As for the accusations of unprofessionalism -- I'll take vivid metaphor [1] like "seeing unicorns" over a dull monotone description like "our site is experiencing server errors." [1] As other replies have pointed out, in this case it's not a metaphor; people are (or were, as the case may be) literally staring at pictures of unicorns.
- zaidf 14y ago
  May be just a matter of preference but for me "our site is experiencing server errors" is much clearer communication than "seeing unicorns." The latter requires me to learn a new terminology in a high pressure environment for no good reason. And if "seeing unicorns" was a code word for a specific kind of errors, then again I would rather have a more descriptive terminology and not one that I may confuse for an inside joke.
  - eropple 14y ago
    I'm not a Ruby programmer. I've never used Unicorn. I had only vaguely heard of it. I found it completely obvious in context. If you get bent out of shape over some pretty mild slang, there are loads of companies out there who'll take your money for as staid a response as you'd like.
  - jzwinck 14y ago
    You are right. Some users are happy to see quirky behavior that serves as an "in joke" for them, but any who failed to understand will not find any comfort during a site emergency. Status messages should be communicated with no unnecessary ambiguity both internally (where unicorns may be the clearest term) and externally (where it is not). Lack of clarity during periods of heavy human workload is a common cause of e.g. plane crashes. Operations people of the internet would do well to learn from mistakes made before the cloud was a thing.
  - pretoriusB 14y ago
    >May be just a matter of preference but for me "our site is experiencing server errors" is much clearer communication than "seeing unicorns." The latter requires me to learn a new terminology in a high pressure environment for no good reason. If you don't already know that "unicorns" means in this context, then you are not a GitHub user, and thus it being down is not a "high pressure environment".
paukul 14y ago
Github switched to the Unicorn server (http://unicorn.bogomips.org http://unicorn.bogomips.org) some time ago. Sorry if you don't like the name but, uhm well, it's the name of the server they use. Anyways. Error pages featured an "angry unicorn" since then, so when they are saying "we are seeing unicorns", most users know that this translates to errors..
- jzwinck 14y ago
  You say most users will know what it means. Do the rest not deserve a readable status page?
pretoriusB 14y ago
>Comes off as un-professional at exactly the wrong moment. No, adding a touch of humor is highly professional, not to mention good marketing. Remember, they are not marketing to enterprise managers, rural Utah programmers, or corporate 80's programmers in suits, but to todays and tomorrows "hip" programmers. Now, some of today's programmers arguably square and adhere to BS 50's professionalism ideas (where professional = boring, somber and well groomed) but most would take the unicorns over any kind of "professional" copy text.

by cagenut 14y ago

tinco 14y ago

How is that un-professional? Unicorns mean errors for github, and they report them. This is more professional reporting than most companies do.

recursive 14y ago
> Unicorns mean errors for github I have no idea what this means, but I can see how the idea of coming up with an alternate language in which fantasy creatures represent things we already have established words for might seem unprofessional
- stock_toaster 14y ago
  Quite literally, the unhandled error page on github shows a unicorn. As seen on this google image search result[1]. It appears they have put up an octocat "we are down" temporary static page right now though... [1]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beatak/4008687328/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/beatak/4008687328/
  - 1qaz2wsx3edc 14y ago
    Additionally they could be referring to their use of `Unicorn: Rack HTTP server for fast clients and Unix` http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&authuser=0&biw=1920&bih=982&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fblog%2F517-unicorn&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iw&ei=KlbWUNrGAoSp2gWKooCIBg http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?um=1&hl=en&...
- tinco 14y ago
  The term unicorn actually comes from the fact that they run the 'unicorn' webserver. When a webapplication error occurs unicorn catches it and displays an error to the visitor. They prettied that error up with a pretty image of a unicorn and a small explanation that something went wrong. So when they say 'we saw unicorns' they literally saw (reports of people seeing) pictures of unicorns. Now I understand that might confuse someone who does not regularily use github, but it is just a term that is in their jargon and I see no reason why they should market-speak that up in an intermediate status message. (Note that these status messages are not press releases but reports that engineers make during the discovery process)
- msbarnett 14y ago
  There's a picture of a unicorn on their error page. Via natural metonymy, seeing an increase in unicorns means they're seeing an increase in errors. It's the exact same linguistic process that lets Americans refer to the executive branch of government as "the white house". I'd hardly call it unprofessional.
- tarkwyn 14y ago
  I'd disagree. Having an easily identified image shown when a particular error is thrown can be really helpful when diagnosing problems, particularly when a customer / user is trying to communicate the problem with the site's support team. It's also quirky and friendly. Unicorns are also supposed to be these rare, mythical beasts which I'd say is exactly the kind of imagery you want representing your server errors.

shadowmint 14y ago

Can't disagree more. Gives me the impression there are actually real people trying to fix things, not just blank-faced robo admins following company policy HOWTO-Fix guides. That github isn't a blank sheet devoid of life and emotion and all 'professional' is the reason I'm willing to shrug off downtime like this. If anything, I really feel for whoever posted: We do not expect this to have visible impact to customers, but will update status if that changes. Ouch. You never ever want to follow that up with a post in red.

chacha102 14y ago
Hopefully it means that they thoroughly thought this through before planning the maintenance, and through their due diligence, they concluded that customers shouldn't see any problems, and thus decided to go forward. Just shows people aren't perfect. Haven't we all been there? (I do agree though that it does feel like a slap in the face to say: "Hey there shouldn't be any problems! Never mind, we were wrong...")

ricardobeat 14y ago

Unicorns are the illustration for server error pages.

pragone 14y ago

Likewise - I haven't the slightest idea what "unicorns" are in this context.

glanotte 14y ago
unicorn is their web server for rails. http://unicorn.bogomips.org/ http://unicorn.bogomips.org/
syncsynchalt 14y ago
The github error page is an angry unicorn. Similar to ars technica's moonshark, or twitter's failwhale.

jeffbarr 14y ago

Come on, really? Did you ever have a piece of code that should be impossible to reach under normal conditions? Did you put a message there to remind yourself that the case in question should never, ever occur? That could be a unicorn. For extra credit, if you have put these messages in your code, have you seen all of them at one time or another? I certainly have!

csense 14y ago

Other posters have noted where the terminology comes from. But you should really learn to take the meaning of an unknown term from context if you don't know what it means. As for the accusations of unprofessionalism -- I'll take vivid metaphor [1] like "seeing unicorns" over a dull monotone description like "our site is experiencing server errors." [1] As other replies have pointed out, in this case it's not a metaphor; people are (or were, as the case may be) literally staring at pictures of unicorns.

zaidf 14y ago
May be just a matter of preference but for me "our site is experiencing server errors" is much clearer communication than "seeing unicorns." The latter requires me to learn a new terminology in a high pressure environment for no good reason. And if "seeing unicorns" was a code word for a specific kind of errors, then again I would rather have a more descriptive terminology and not one that I may confuse for an inside joke.
- eropple 14y ago
  I'm not a Ruby programmer. I've never used Unicorn. I had only vaguely heard of it. I found it completely obvious in context. If you get bent out of shape over some pretty mild slang, there are loads of companies out there who'll take your money for as staid a response as you'd like.
- jzwinck 14y ago
  You are right. Some users are happy to see quirky behavior that serves as an "in joke" for them, but any who failed to understand will not find any comfort during a site emergency. Status messages should be communicated with no unnecessary ambiguity both internally (where unicorns may be the clearest term) and externally (where it is not). Lack of clarity during periods of heavy human workload is a common cause of e.g. plane crashes. Operations people of the internet would do well to learn from mistakes made before the cloud was a thing.
- pretoriusB 14y ago
  >May be just a matter of preference but for me "our site is experiencing server errors" is much clearer communication than "seeing unicorns." The latter requires me to learn a new terminology in a high pressure environment for no good reason. If you don't already know that "unicorns" means in this context, then you are not a GitHub user, and thus it being down is not a "high pressure environment".

paukul 14y ago

Github switched to the Unicorn server (http://unicorn.bogomips.org http://unicorn.bogomips.org) some time ago. Sorry if you don't like the name but, uhm well, it's the name of the server they use. Anyways. Error pages featured an "angry unicorn" since then, so when they are saying "we are seeing unicorns", most users know that this translates to errors..

jzwinck 14y ago
You say most users will know what it means. Do the rest not deserve a readable status page?

pretoriusB 14y ago

>Comes off as un-professional at exactly the wrong moment. No, adding a touch of humor is highly professional, not to mention good marketing. Remember, they are not marketing to enterprise managers, rural Utah programmers, or corporate 80's programmers in suits, but to todays and tomorrows "hip" programmers. Now, some of today's programmers arguably square and adhere to BS 50's professionalism ideas (where professional = boring, somber and well groomed) but most would take the unicorns over any kind of "professional" copy text.