4 ms·

Scaling the HS Hackers Facebook Group

34 points by aroman 12y ago

jsinger1 12y ago
This is really good. Will take note.
aroman 12y ago
If anyone is interested in how those stats at the bottom were generated, it was with a Graph API tool I wrote for the job. I would be happy to clean it up and release it as open source if anyone else would find it valuable.
- glomph 12y ago
  That would be neat! I had been thinking of doing a similar thing but I was always too lazy.
  - aroman 12y ago
    I'll try to package it up into something useful then! In short, my system basically was just a highly parallelized graph crawler in node.js, which dumped into mongo for easy queries and analysis. I'll try to make it a bit more agnostic though. One issue is that the Graph API for groups is in fact broken — it's request pagination system yields an inconsistent (and incomplete) data set. We've reported the bug[0], but I've been seeing reports of this for months. I've actually been beginning to suspect some sort of deliberate crippling, though I haven't exactly been able to work out a motive :) [0] https://developers.facebook.com/bugs/518983258224814/ https://developers.facebook.com/bugs/518983258224814/
infinitebattery 12y ago
This was awesome to read. It's incredible to see such a growth in the hacker community- and a facebook community like this has definitely inspired a lot more creativity among young minds.
Fuzzwah 12y ago
Good read, but the title didn't really prepare me for what it was actually about. On clicking the link I thought I was going to be reading an FB'ers technical blog post about the dramas of dealing with massive facebook groups from their point of view.
- aroman 12y ago
  I thought about that too, actually. I suppose it's a bit intentional, given the audience — I was definitely trying to be a bit tongue-in-cheek about "scaling". Maybe I should append the subtitle "From 0 to Sam Altman and Beyond" to the submission title?
  - ersii 12y ago
    It would have been nice to have "HS Hackers" expanded/clarified somewhere in the beginning of the text - even as the introduction did mention "High schoolers" multiple times.
    - aroman 12y ago
      Definitely — thanks for the feedback. That's something that I struggled with in particular, because I wrote the post for a dual audience — both HS Hackers itself, as well as the wider hacker community. I'm updating some of the language in the intro section to paint a more clear picture of what exactly HS Hackers is.
krrishd 12y ago
It's amazing to think how many people this group has come to influence (including myself) over these past months.
tingley 12y ago
The extended pregnancy metaphor is confusing and off-putting.
- aroman 12y ago
  Sorry you felt that way — definitely was not my intention to be off-putting. It just seemed like a natural way to partition the various stages of the story, especially given that the group was started 9 months ago.
benwaffle 12y ago
C is best
- krrishd 12y ago
  what's up iofel

34 points by aroman 12y ago

This is really good. Will take note.

If anyone is interested in how those stats at the bottom were generated, it was with a Graph API tool I wrote for the job. I would be happy to clean it up and release it as open source if anyone else would find it valuable.

glomph 12y ago
That would be neat! I had been thinking of doing a similar thing but I was always too lazy.
- aroman 12y ago
  I'll try to package it up into something useful then! In short, my system basically was just a highly parallelized graph crawler in node.js, which dumped into mongo for easy queries and analysis. I'll try to make it a bit more agnostic though. One issue is that the Graph API for groups is in fact broken — it's request pagination system yields an inconsistent (and incomplete) data set. We've reported the bug[0], but I've been seeing reports of this for months. I've actually been beginning to suspect some sort of deliberate crippling, though I haven't exactly been able to work out a motive :) [0] https://developers.facebook.com/bugs/518983258224814/ https://developers.facebook.com/bugs/518983258224814/

infinitebattery 12y ago

This was awesome to read. It's incredible to see such a growth in the hacker community- and a facebook community like this has definitely inspired a lot more creativity among young minds.

Fuzzwah 12y ago

Good read, but the title didn't really prepare me for what it was actually about. On clicking the link I thought I was going to be reading an FB'ers technical blog post about the dramas of dealing with massive facebook groups from their point of view.

aroman 12y ago
I thought about that too, actually. I suppose it's a bit intentional, given the audience — I was definitely trying to be a bit tongue-in-cheek about "scaling". Maybe I should append the subtitle "From 0 to Sam Altman and Beyond" to the submission title?
- ersii 12y ago
  It would have been nice to have "HS Hackers" expanded/clarified somewhere in the beginning of the text - even as the introduction did mention "High schoolers" multiple times.
  - aroman 12y ago
    Definitely — thanks for the feedback. That's something that I struggled with in particular, because I wrote the post for a dual audience — both HS Hackers itself, as well as the wider hacker community. I'm updating some of the language in the intro section to paint a more clear picture of what exactly HS Hackers is.

krrishd 12y ago

It's amazing to think how many people this group has come to influence (including myself) over these past months.

tingley 12y ago

The extended pregnancy metaphor is confusing and off-putting.

aroman 12y ago
Sorry you felt that way — definitely was not my intention to be off-putting. It just seemed like a natural way to partition the various stages of the story, especially given that the group was started 9 months ago.

benwaffle 12y ago

C is best

krrishd 12y ago
what's up iofel