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Slack issues

status.slack.com

41–50 of 67 posts

Re: Slack issues

#41

Would a decent status page be an actually intelligent use of blockchain? We could have a global network of computers responsible for determining a consensus on whether a service is truly and actually down or not. It could be captured in an independent ledger, and ideally used as a canonical determination for status pages, SLA disputes, etc.

I think a normal company would be better suited

Re: Slack issues

#42
post #35
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact, there's an inverse incentive at play here. Slack is on the hook for missed SLA, so any admission of issue is legally and financially culpable. This means they don't want to admit to an issue until it's impossible to deny there is one.

There is also an incentive to display the proper status, since if you show all green when the service is down, you look dumb. We recently improved our status reporting because our old status system might not accurately indicate if only a part of our service went down, so it might show green even though (some) customers definitely saw very obvious downtime.

> There is also an incentive to display the proper status, since if you show all green when the service is down, you look dumb.

How many customers will think you look dumb? If you admit downtime, will the accurate reporting drive away more new customers, than the inaccurate reporting drives away due to you looking dumb?

"Looking dumb" is not a reasonable factor. Damage to your public image is, but that's divorced from looking dumb. It's entirely possible Slack is saving money by not admitting their downtimes, because it leaves a better image.

Re: Slack issues

#43

Would a decent status page be an actually intelligent use of blockchain? We could have a global network of computers responsible for determining a consensus on whether a service is truly and actually down or not. It could be captured in an independent ledger, and ideally used as a canonical determination for status pages, SLA disputes, etc.

You do not need a blockchain for this.

Re: Slack issues

#44
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also an incentive to display the proper status, since if you show all green when the service is down, you look dumb. We recently improved our status reporting because our old status system might not accurately indicate if only a part of our service went down, so it might show green even though (some) customers definitely saw very obvious downtime.

When the choice is between temporarily "looking dumb" and permanently loosing a bunch of money because of SLAs, companies like Salesforce usually make the latter choice.

Nah the issue isn't looking dumb, the issue is looking like a liar. What good is an SLA if your reputation is that you're going to lie to avoid paying out?

Re: Slack issues

#45

Would a decent status page be an actually intelligent use of blockchain? We could have a global network of computers responsible for determining a consensus on whether a service is truly and actually down or not. It could be captured in an independent ledger, and ideally used as a canonical determination for status pages, SLA disputes, etc.

The year is 2071.

They built a house of straw. The thundering machines sputtered and stopped. Their leaders talked and talked and talked. But nothing could stem the avalanche. Their world crumbled.

The cities exploded. A whirlwind of looting, a firestorm of fear. Men began to feed on men.

On the roads it was a white line nightmare. Only those mobile enough to scavenge, brutal enough to pillage would survive. The gangs took over the highways, ready to wage war for a tank of juice. And in this maelstrom of decay, ordinary men were battered and smashed.

Except for one man armed with an AK-47, and a Honda full of silver. As he stood on the bluff, looking down at the desert spread for miles before him, a man approached, darkly.

“Instead of silver bars, have you considered blockchain for this?”

Re: Slack issues

#46

Would a decent status page be an actually intelligent use of blockchain? We could have a global network of computers responsible for determining a consensus on whether a service is truly and actually down or not. It could be captured in an independent ledger, and ideally used as a canonical determination for status pages, SLA disputes, etc.

what if the blockchain itself was in an inconsistent state due to 51% attack (also known as split brain consensus)

Re: Slack issues

#48
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two kinds of status pages. Those that show you red when the service is up (automated) and those that show you green when the service is down (manual and automated) - or some mix of those two. You don't want made up information too, so for the manual one you'll get some delay for the analysis of the situation. Your actions are extremely unlikely to change if the downtime is for less than half an hour. So wha…

I expect: * not lying * not having to dig out our logs and proofs for SLA reasons on obvious fuckup. > (Yes, I got annoyed at a thousandth comment that essentially says the status update is not instantaneous and perfectly reflecting the situation) It's not about it being minute behind reality, it's about it lying in entirety. Why you have so much problems with understanding that ?

There's a bit of time between a delayed status report and lying. If you referred to them historically not reporting anything at all then that's fair, but it wasn't clear from the message.

And it's a common comment I see 10min after some service having issues: "the status page is still green" - yes, people are probably still logging in to things and figuring out if the issue actually is internal.

Re: Slack issues

#49
post #9

Another status page that sucks. Slack goes down, people start texting me about it, status page is green, HN informs me that Slack is actually down. Next time I build a status page it will simply be a static HTML with green indicators and some random metrics, looks like it is the industry standard. :facepalm:

status pages are rarely automated and it looks like slack was down at like 1am pacific. somebody got woken up by a page and groggily escalated and they sat there fighting the outage for 30 minutes before someone said “what about the status page”. or at least that’s how it worked at my last company

Re: Slack issues

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the choice is between temporarily "looking dumb" and permanently loosing a bunch of money because of SLAs, companies like Salesforce usually make the latter choice.

Nah the issue isn't looking dumb, the issue is looking like a liar. What good is an SLA if your reputation is that you're going to lie to avoid paying out?

This is Salesforce we are talking about. They topped Stack Overflow as the most dreaded technology so they bribed SO not to include them anymore. They don't care if they look like liars to technical people. Technical people are not the decisions makers in their target customer base.
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