Why does HN run on a single $100 instance? Is it just for clout to say they have a high-traffic app that runs on a lean stack? When big news events like the OpenAI drama happen the site gets bottlenecked. I can understand if it's an app with simple operations not wanting to roll a k8s cluster, but why not something managed like Heroku or Digital Ocean where you can autoscale or scale up with a slider? Is it just because M5 hosting requires them to provision in advance? |
They're not, as far as i know, making money such that an unserved client request is a lost opportunity for income.
The stated goals of fostering rational conversations and sharing of knowledge are very likely better served by the implicit throttling of contentious subjects and breaking "news" that everyone wants to talk about all at once.
Had HN been lower latency through the last few days of "OpenAI" media spasms, they might well have collected thousands more comments. Was there much chance those would've added any information or insight to the debates?
It's not just the inability to post though, it's the inability to even see the existing discourse on a busy day.