Growing pains in Site Updates (Josh)

Hey everyone,

You may have noticed, but the site went full panda around 4AM CST this morning.

This was a weird one — turns out the database ran out of space!

Thankfully it was easy to fix, we just expanded the server that hosts the database and we were back in action.

As a part of the rewrite, we’ve been looking into what’s going on with the database, as it’s unusually large for a site that’s made up of purely text. Take a look:

Now, the size differences between these aren’t surprising in isolation, it makes sense that there are SO MANY MORE comments than posts. That said, seventeen gigabytes of comments, even over 10 years, is pretty bananas.

We have a few theories about what’s going on, but there’s still some investigation to do. Cutting the size down means lower monthly costs, which is always a good thing.

Speaking of the rewrite, I’m happy to share that Buffy is getting close, and very soon (maybe even this weekend?) I’ll be posting a call for testers to check things out and put the site through its paces before we switch over. It’s looking really good so far!!

“I see you are eating food again, father.”

<3,
-J

Last updated February 23, 2024