4 ms·

The technology behind Nextdoor

46 points by kilimchoi 11y ago

pbreit 11y ago
File under: "Things I Never Wondered About".
stephengillie 11y ago
I'm guessing there's a web stack of some type, backed by a database, perhaps with an API mid-layer. Probably some type of FTP or other content upload system for articles, and an image origin for a CDN. Also, perhaps a data ingestion and ETL system.
- nsxwolf 11y ago
  And I think it's all done by computers.
joeblow99 11y ago
some kind of queuing as well
Todd 11y ago
I'm kind of disappointed by the cynical tone that has been increasing on HN over the past year or so. This is a straightforward blog post that is transparent about a wide range of technologies used in several areas (not just the user-facing portion). I found it informative. For example, it validates some of my concerns about scaling using PostgreSQL. They're using a single write server in a top 2000 site (according to Alexa).
- rjbrock 11y ago
  Yeah as am I. These cynical comments can be completely replaced by a downvote if they honestly don't think that this is interesting or appropriate. On a separate note, it was great to hear that PostGIS (which is amazing btw) scaled well and can be used on a site with this much traffic!
thaddeusmt 11y ago
Interesting to hear they were so dissatisfied with Celery/RabbitMQ that chose to write their own queuing system. I'm looking in to implementing a queue for background tasks right now, and was down to choosing between Celery/RabbitMQ and beanstalkd. Perhaps I'll check out their new "Taskworker" ("Kale"?) app that they have open sourced. (https://github.com/Nextdoor/ndkale https://github.com/Nextdoor/ndkale)
- Todd 11y ago
  I know it's early days, but I'm excited about Salvatore's new project, Disque. He certainly knows how to find a technical niche with a big need. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9818403 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9818403
nnain 11y ago
Python/Django is still lovely for putting together a quick project, but I don't think anyone would pick this stack (Python/Django/Tornado/RabbitMQ etc) for a scalable server in 2015 anyway. It was a good choice in 2011-12, when Nextdoor started. As of today what's posted in this blog is pretty common knowledge within Python backend developer community. Of course the comfort level of team members in picking up other technologies matter.
- tim333 11y ago
  What do you think they would use now? I'm not sure Node/Mongo etc is without it's problems.

46 points by kilimchoi 11y ago

File under: "Things I Never Wondered About".

I'm guessing there's a web stack of some type, backed by a database, perhaps with an API mid-layer. Probably some type of FTP or other content upload system for articles, and an image origin for a CDN. Also, perhaps a data ingestion and ETL system.

nsxwolf 11y ago
And I think it's all done by computers.

joeblow99 11y ago

some kind of queuing as well

Todd 11y ago

I'm kind of disappointed by the cynical tone that has been increasing on HN over the past year or so. This is a straightforward blog post that is transparent about a wide range of technologies used in several areas (not just the user-facing portion). I found it informative. For example, it validates some of my concerns about scaling using PostgreSQL. They're using a single write server in a top 2000 site (according to Alexa).

rjbrock 11y ago
Yeah as am I. These cynical comments can be completely replaced by a downvote if they honestly don't think that this is interesting or appropriate. On a separate note, it was great to hear that PostGIS (which is amazing btw) scaled well and can be used on a site with this much traffic!

thaddeusmt 11y ago

Interesting to hear they were so dissatisfied with Celery/RabbitMQ that chose to write their own queuing system. I'm looking in to implementing a queue for background tasks right now, and was down to choosing between Celery/RabbitMQ and beanstalkd. Perhaps I'll check out their new "Taskworker" ("Kale"?) app that they have open sourced. (https://github.com/Nextdoor/ndkale https://github.com/Nextdoor/ndkale)

Todd 11y ago
I know it's early days, but I'm excited about Salvatore's new project, Disque. He certainly knows how to find a technical niche with a big need. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9818403 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9818403

nnain 11y ago

Python/Django is still lovely for putting together a quick project, but I don't think anyone would pick this stack (Python/Django/Tornado/RabbitMQ etc) for a scalable server in 2015 anyway. It was a good choice in 2011-12, when Nextdoor started. As of today what's posted in this blog is pretty common knowledge within Python backend developer community. Of course the comfort level of team members in picking up other technologies matter.

tim333 11y ago
What do you think they would use now? I'm not sure Node/Mongo etc is without it's problems.