RethinkDB is shutting down • Hacker News Board

Re: RethinkDB is shutting down

#201

Post by ilaksh » Thu, Oct 06, 2016, 7:23 AM UTC

People saying they "failed" -- I disagree. It is VERY hard to sell products that are essentially free. Its largely down network effects and luck or having an _in_ with the good old' boys network. Its not more popular than every other db..so what.. And the best systems are rarely the most popular. Btw popularity is not merit.

But they made a badass database that relatively speaking IS very popular. So thats not failing. Thats winning.

Also maybe these people are being more honest and responsible than some startups that keep flushing millions knowing they are unlikely to ever have a positive cash flow.

Plus getting acquired by some company like Stripe, realistically, whether there was some big exit or not, is the dream of many people.

So given the reality of the startup scene to say they 'failed' is a joke.

Re: RethinkDB is shutting down

#202

Post by qooleot » Thu, Oct 06, 2016, 7:25 AM UTC

mangeletti wrote: post #72

Does anyone have experience with Postgres' pubsub[1] as a means for realtime apps? 1. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.6/static/sql-notify.html

We don't use postgres pub/sub for exactly "realtime", but do make use of it in single-page apps that use websockets. A couple notes:

-- LISTEN/NOTIFY has a payload size hardcoded maximum. For big documents, we have to send a record ID then fetch the document upon receiving a message. In practice, it adds 5ms of overhead.

-- One of the best features is that you can combine this with pg_try_advisory_lock to create job queues that use the core locking features of postgres, which are pretty darn reliable and well defined. We use nodejs, and if the server processing a job dies, the lock is released automatically and another nodejs process can pick it up.

Re: RethinkDB is shutting down

#203

Post by yoshyosh » Thu, Oct 06, 2016, 7:26 AM UTC

happertiger wrote: post #169

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone at RethinkDB was incredible to work with. Thanks for showing everyone how to write amazing documentation Thank you! (Really. I'm RethinkDB's documentation writer/editor.)

I have always wondered why there isn't a tech company that just does kick ass documentation for companies. Seems like a small group of people who make kick butt stuff in this area. Really, you did have fantastic documentation, as the original said. Kudos.

There is a company, yc in fact http://readme.io/

Re: RethinkDB is shutting down

#204

Post by amelius » Thu, Oct 06, 2016, 7:44 AM UTC

It is sad to see that making a living from development tools is becoming less and less an option.

Kudos to the RethinkDB team for trying, and giving us a very useful DB.

Re: RethinkDB is shutting down

#205

Post by amelius » Thu, Oct 06, 2016, 7:46 AM UTC

pc wrote: post #48

RethinkDB is one of the developer tools that we at Stripe most looked up to.[1] The team had so many good ideas and rigorous, creative thoughts around what a database could be and how it should work. I'm really bummed that it didn't work out for them and have enormous respect for the tenacity of their effort. I'm also excited to have them join us here at Stripe. As we've gotten to know Mike, Slava, and the other Reth…

Just out of interest, are you using Haskell at Stripe? If so, at what scale?

Re: RethinkDB is shutting down

#206

Post by patkai » Thu, Oct 06, 2016, 7:53 AM UTC

RethinkDB was simply too good to be true. I've been reading Slavas defmacro.org probably since he started writing it, and was watching where he will end up. It was no disappointment that he created this with his cofounders, and while I'm a bit sad they couldn't find a viable business I know they are young and ambitions, we will hear from them.

Go Slava!

Re: RethinkDB is shutting down

#207

Post by k__ » Thu, Oct 06, 2016, 7:54 AM UTC

Interesting, I expected ArangoDB close shop before RethinkDB.

I found both nice and even built a product on top of rethink over the last twelve months. Guess I was blended by the hype :D

Re: RethinkDB is shutting down

#208

Post by LoSboccacc » Thu, Oct 06, 2016, 7:59 AM UTC

sseveran wrote: post #178

jkarneges wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, to each his own, but I don't think the product was the problem. Lots of people love RethinkDB. The comments here are proof of that.

Loving a product is somewhat orthogonal. To be successful an open source DB company needs some large customers paying to make that model work. I dislike cassandra immensely, but I still use it every day.

> I dislike cassandra immensely, but I still use it every day.

I feel your pain. There is very few robust database system that handle recovery well enough at scale, and for those without the deep pocket to keep a dba on hand there are very little choices.

For small/middle scale robust system Cockroach db is promising but still needs a couple years development, if it can survive without a monetization strategy long enough.

Re: RethinkDB is shutting down

#209

Post by patates » Thu, Oct 06, 2016, 8:01 AM UTC

chanux wrote: post #198

pc wrote: post #48

RethinkDB is one of the developer tools that we at Stripe most looked up to.[1] The team had so many good ideas and rigorous, creative thoughts around what a database could be and how it should work. I'm really bummed that it didn't work out for them and have enormous respect for the tenacity of their effort. I'm also excited to have them join us here at Stripe. As we've gotten to know Mike, Slava, and the other Reth…

I secretly (not 'secret' anymore I guess) and irrationally trust Stripe to do good on RethinkDB. Also, TIL: Slava is defmarco. Yeah defmarco, that's how I read it for a long time. I especially love this piece from defmarco http://www.defmacro.org/ramblings/fp.html

> Also, TIL: Slava is defmarco

Just another +1 to the "OMG it's him/her?" moments regularly experience while reading HN. Thanks for mentioning.

Re: RethinkDB is shutting down

#210

Post by codecamper » Thu, Oct 06, 2016, 8:03 AM UTC

carsongross wrote: post #135

pc wrote: post #48

RethinkDB is one of the developer tools that we at Stripe most looked up to.[1] The team had so many good ideas and rigorous, creative thoughts around what a database could be and how it should work. I'm really bummed that it didn't work out for them and have enormous respect for the tenacity of their effort. I'm also excited to have them join us here at Stripe. As we've gotten to know Mike, Slava, and the other Reth…

The comments section here can be brutal and God knows I've been responsible for some of it, which makes seeing comments like this all the more heartening.

No need to ask God. Just pull up the history. ;)