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Ask HN: Downtime. What was changed?

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Re: Ask HN: Downtime. What was changed?

#21

Post by User9812 »

TheLoneWolfling wrote: post #9
akie wrote: post #8

I really think it's a disgrace that HN is down for hours just to do some (probably important) back-end work. Here we are, talking about scalability, high-availability, what have you - and the medium we're using to host those discussions is built on 90s web technology and operated as one. I understand that Hacker News is probably run by a small crew, but I think it's a disgrace anyway. If you guys need money to make t…

Not to mention the dreaded "Unknown or expired link" message.

Not sure why you were downvoted, but I completely agree. I get the 'Unknown or expired link' message all the time because I'll write long comments, or write part of a comment, get sidetracked, then finish. There's no reason for this error message, and to have tokens time out after what feels like a matter of minutes.

Then of course this happens on the homepage too, when you click 'more', after being inactive for a while. Why?

And why is there no pagination?

Why do a click reply on a comment and get redirected to a completely separate page, instead of replying inline? And then when I submit that comment, it just redirects me to the top of the comment page, so I have no idea where I left off, and now the comments might be shuffled since votes have changed.

These feel like critical changes that benefit everyone, and require little work. Why are they never addressed after years?

Re: Ask HN: Downtime. What was changed?

#22

Post by DanBC »

akie wrote: post #8

I really think it's a disgrace that HN is down for hours just to do some (probably important) back-end work. Here we are, talking about scalability, high-availability, what have you - and the medium we're using to host those discussions is built on 90s web technology and operated as one. I understand that Hacker News is probably run by a small crew, but I think it's a disgrace anyway. If you guys need money to make t…

I fucking loathe the attitude that HN should be anything other than what it is. If you like it, use it. If you don't like it, don't use it (and hopefully make something that you do like).

But don't, when someone has spent a few hours tinkering to fix some stuff, complain about unprofessional. Or do, but don't then complain about the downvotes.

Re: Ask HN: Downtime. What was changed?

#24

Post by lukasm »

akie wrote: post #8

I really think it's a disgrace that HN is down for hours just to do some (probably important) back-end work. Here we are, talking about scalability, high-availability, what have you - and the medium we're using to host those discussions is built on 90s web technology and operated as one. I understand that Hacker News is probably run by a small crew, but I think it's a disgrace anyway. If you guys need money to make t…

It's not. No damage done, possibly quite the opposite, but It's an overkill to have own hardware and in-house http for it. Rewriting it for heroku with Flask or Node would be quite simple.

Re: Ask HN: Downtime. What was changed?

#25

Post by [deleted] »

akie wrote: post #8

I really think it's a disgrace that HN is down for hours just to do some (probably important) back-end work. Here we are, talking about scalability, high-availability, what have you - and the medium we're using to host those discussions is built on 90s web technology and operated as one. I understand that Hacker News is probably run by a small crew, but I think it's a disgrace anyway. If you guys need money to make t…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Downtime. What was changed?

#26

Post by TheLoneWolfling »

User9812 wrote: post #21
TheLoneWolfling wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention the dreaded "Unknown or expired link" message.

Not sure why you were downvoted, but I completely agree. I get the 'Unknown or expired link' message all the time because I'll write long comments, or write part of a comment, get sidetracked, then finish. There's no reason for this error message, and to have tokens time out after what feels like a matter of minutes. Then of course this happens on the homepage too, when you click 'more', after being inactive for a wh…

Its because this website was designed using a neat and novel model, that ultimately doesn't work.

(Most links on this website (ones with ids at least) are associated with state, stored on the server as opposed to in the link / cookie / etc. As there are an absurd number of links accessible at any one time, the number of serverside state objects that need to be stored gets excessive, so they get garbage collected after a while.)

Re: Ask HN: Downtime. What was changed?

#27

Post by bane »

akie wrote: post #8

I really think it's a disgrace that HN is down for hours just to do some (probably important) back-end work. Here we are, talking about scalability, high-availability, what have you - and the medium we're using to host those discussions is built on 90s web technology and operated as one. I understand that Hacker News is probably run by a small crew, but I think it's a disgrace anyway. If you guys need money to make t…

I suggest you ask for your money back and cancel your subscription.

Re: Ask HN: Downtime. What was changed?

#28

Post by DanBC »

User9812 wrote: post #21
TheLoneWolfling wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention the dreaded "Unknown or expired link" message.

Not sure why you were downvoted, but I completely agree. I get the 'Unknown or expired link' message all the time because I'll write long comments, or write part of a comment, get sidetracked, then finish. There's no reason for this error message, and to have tokens time out after what feels like a matter of minutes. Then of course this happens on the homepage too, when you click 'more', after being inactive for a wh…

It's a way of warning you that someone else might have made the same point that you're about to make and that you should reply in a fresh thread.

Prepare your replies in a text editor and copy 'n' paste them to the new text entry box.

Re: Ask HN: Downtime. What was changed?

#29

Post by jacquesm »

akie wrote: post #8

I really think it's a disgrace that HN is down for hours just to do some (probably important) back-end work. Here we are, talking about scalability, high-availability, what have you - and the medium we're using to host those discussions is built on 90s web technology and operated as one. I understand that Hacker News is probably run by a small crew, but I think it's a disgrace anyway. If you guys need money to make t…

First of all, thanks Dan for all the hard work.

Think about it this way: you need your fix so badly that within minutes you're back here to vent your frustration.

And yet you have nowhere else to go. So HN can afford the downtime easily, and with what I know of the way it is put together the reliability is astounding.

Now imagine it shuttin HN down for a month! (I sensed a disturbance in the force there when you read that.) Within an hour of switching it back on the traffic would be right back where it was before.

Hm, maybe there is an idea in there somewhere. A website for hackers with 'opening hours' that simply refuses connections from your locality when you're supposed to be at work.

It would probably be sponsored by some VPN supplier ;)

Re: Ask HN: Downtime. What was changed?

#30

Post by melling »

robbiep wrote: post #3

Global hacker productivity rose by 25% as a significant outlet of procrastination was temporarily placed out of reach

Anyone notice that all the threads contain nothing except the usual "productivity gained while down" comment, and the "how dare you keep the site down for so long" comment?

Someone writing a Turing Test bot to imitate HN readers?

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