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Coding Horror and blogs.stackoverflow.com experience "100% Data Loss"

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Re: Coding Horror and blogs.stackoverflow.com experience "100% Data Loss"

#91

Post by akeefer »

synnik wrote: post #44

I sympathize, but I have little patience for calling out your data provider when disaster strikes. Sure, there is likely some technical fault on their end, but ultimately you are accountable for your own site. I'm not going to imply anything negative about him for losing the site temporarily. We all have "learning experiences"... I just hope that when he does come back, he posts an insightful analysis of how he could…

How is it pointing fingers if your hosting provider lost your site plus their backups of your site? They were being paid to provide a service, and they failed at it in basically the worst possible way (i.e. total data loss, rather than just downtime). Sure, he should have had his own backups, but how does the fact that he could have recovered better form his host's screw up change the fact that they screwed up?

That's not too far from saying that it's your fault if you get hit by a car while walking across a crosswalk because you didn't jump out of the way fast enough.

They failed, they failed in a catastrophic way, and they deserve to have it made public knowledge and to lose business over it. He should do a better job backing up his own stuff, but he's right to be angry with his hosting provider and to call them out.

Re: Coding Horror and blogs.stackoverflow.com experience "100% Data Loss"

#93

Post by mcantelon »

nkohari wrote: post #51
dnsworks wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you fail to audit and test your disaster recovery procedures on a regular basis, then you fail at competently maintaining your infrastructure. No excuses.

I'm not disagreeing, I'm just saying that before people get drunk on schadenfreude they should put themselves in Atwood's position. If you pay someone for a service you generally expect it to work when you need it.

Yeah, but if you pay for a mission critical service and never bother testing it, you've pretty much passively decided to fail.

Re: Coding Horror and blogs.stackoverflow.com experience "100% Data Loss"

#95

Post by [deleted] »

nkohari wrote: post #51
dnsworks wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you fail to audit and test your disaster recovery procedures on a regular basis, then you fail at competently maintaining your infrastructure. No excuses.

I'm not disagreeing, I'm just saying that before people get drunk on schadenfreude they should put themselves in Atwood's position. If you pay someone for a service you generally expect it to work when you need it.

[deleted]

Re: Coding Horror and blogs.stackoverflow.com experience "100% Data Loss"

#96

Post by clistctrl »

What a nightmare, I hope he has a good writeup on the story when the site is back online. I'm sure there are some great lessons to come out of all this for the rest of us. Specifically, what were his expectations from the service providers he worked with.

Re: Coding Horror and blogs.stackoverflow.com experience "100% Data Loss"

#97

Post by DougBTX »

pvg wrote: post #66
nollidge wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're thinking of Daily WTF. Jeff's blog is/was just a programming blog. He also frequently said he was the world's worst coder, so...

Well, he did make sure to tell us to shut up, stop what we're doing and make a back-up. Because he knows things, you see: http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:2HHNAk2SB6EJ:www.codingh...

Well, he was right.

Re: Coding Horror and blogs.stackoverflow.com experience "100% Data Loss"

#98

Post by jrockway »

pvg wrote: post #76
jrockway wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The site says he has a backup, right? So it sounds like he ... does have a backup.

Yes, except he doesn't. Hence his tweets and his own recent question on stackoverflow about recovering his content from internet caches.

Ouch. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I guess he is just fucked.

Re: Coding Horror and blogs.stackoverflow.com experience "100% Data Loss"

#99

Post by pyre »

mcantelon wrote: post #93
nkohari wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not disagreeing, I'm just saying that before people get drunk on schadenfreude they should put themselves in Atwood's position. If you pay someone for a service you generally expect it to work when you need it.

Yeah, but if you pay for a mission critical service and never bother testing it, you've pretty much passively decided to fail.

The same could be said for CrystalTech

Re: Coding Horror and blogs.stackoverflow.com experience "100% Data Loss"

#100

Post by synnik »

akeefer wrote: post #91
synnik wrote: post #44

I sympathize, but I have little patience for calling out your data provider when disaster strikes. Sure, there is likely some technical fault on their end, but ultimately you are accountable for your own site. I'm not going to imply anything negative about him for losing the site temporarily. We all have "learning experiences"... I just hope that when he does come back, he posts an insightful analysis of how he could…

How is it pointing fingers if your hosting provider lost your site plus their backups of your site? They were being paid to provide a service, and they failed at it in basically the worst possible way (i.e. total data loss, rather than just downtime). Sure, he should have had his own backups, but how does the fact that he could have recovered better form his host's screw up change the fact that they screwed up? That'…

He is right to be angry, but I have to disagree about calling them out while the site is still done.

An analysis posted after the fact can lay out where the technical failures took place, and that is the right time to describe issues with the host.

Pointing fingers in anger is very frowned upon in all organizations I work with. It implies a lack of ownership of your own products and a lack of maturity in handling your business affairs. Organizations that pursue blame before solutions do not have a positive culture -- they have a fear-based culture.

To answer your direct question, nothing he says will change the fact that the vendor screwed up. Your analogy is correct that it is the drivers fault if someone hits you, but flawed in that you cannot absolve all responsibility for your own safety when crossing streets.

When a vendor screws up, the level of professionalism that you portray when dealing with the situation says a great deal about yourself.

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