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Ask HN: Is there a reason for the HN deadlink?
I've been using HN for about two years, and it's been the most educational post collegiate years of my life, but the UX on HN can be somewhat frustrating. If I leave my computer for a bit of time, the "More" link or comment submission buttons return deadlink or "Unknown or expired link." Is there a reason for the constant HN state change?
- lutusp 13y ago> Is there a reason for the constant HN state change? Yes, and it's a good one. The idea is that, because an HTTP transaction is stateless, the HN server has to maintain a database of active connections and their context, based on the visitor's IP and/or a cookie. But the database requires both storage and processor time, so if a transaction goes dormant, after a set time interval it's purged. The alternative is to extend the timeout interval, but this means the database must be made larger, and grows more or less linearly with the timeout interval -- ten times more time, ten times more storage. It's simple economics.