Why does HN run on a single $100 instance? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why does HN run on a single $100 instance?

#11

Post by foldr » Thu, Nov 23, 2023, 5:20 PM UTC

shaneprrlt wrote: post #9

bhaney wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would result in multiple distinct instances of HN that don't share data. You're thinking of an architecture with a separate central data store that all the instances access and update, but that is not how HN works to my knowledge.

:mind-blown: Hats off to PG for building an app that could handle 4m requests with the architecture of a small hobby project.

That's just how powerful modern hardware is. You don't need a k8s cluster to run a simple CRUD app under realistic loads. I'm sure the hackernews codebase has acquired some performance optimizations over the years, but I doubt that it's doing anything especially clever performance-wise.

Re: Why does HN run on a single $100 instance?

#12

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Nov 25, 2023, 4:52 PM UTC

Kye wrote: post #10

shaneprrlt wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN is for sure a contribution to the community that they generously provide (and a bit of a recruiting tool for YC no doubt. Perhaps not as much these days since YC is a household name in startup world). It's not just the inability to post though, it's the inability to even see the existing discourse on a busy day.

These are exactly the situations where the discourse is least interesting and lowest in information.

[deleted]

Re: Why does HN run on a single $100 instance?

#13

Post by shaneprrlt » Sat, Nov 25, 2023, 5:08 PM UTC

Kye wrote: post #10

shaneprrlt wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN is for sure a contribution to the community that they generously provide (and a bit of a recruiting tool for YC no doubt. Perhaps not as much these days since YC is a household name in startup world). It's not just the inability to post though, it's the inability to even see the existing discourse on a busy day.

These are exactly the situations where the discourse is least interesting and lowest in information.

How is asking about the architecture of this site least interesting and lowest in information? Your opinion is the least interesting and lowest in information.