"I hate it when non-programmers write about programming!"

It doesn't matter what he says. All that matters is that you notice.

After 30 minutes, you are the #1 response to the #2 thread.

So people click through.

Cha-ching.

True journalism, indeed.

Michael never claimed to be a journalist. You're likely mixing up the professions because you think TechCrunch has gotten so big that it has and cares about its reputation. That wouldn't be the case, he just writes whatever he can to continue to generate pageviews.

For what it's worth, I contributed to the article and I call myself a programmer.

Do you and Arrington have some kind of confidential knowledge about Twitter's implementation that allows you to conclude that its problems are directly attributable to Rails itself and not how it was implemented, or something that has nothing to do with the programming language at all (the hosting facility they use, their operating system, ...)? Or are you just trolling?

Yeah I think your question is a fair one.

But I don't think it's ridiculous to assume that the stability and operational functionality of a website is primarily dependent on the web framework the website uses. The data center is probably the second to blame, but I don't think that Twitter's problems are related to continual issues with their hosting (though i'm sure some are). I doubt the blame lies on Debian, or whatever their using.

It is possible to write buggy, unstable, unreliable, unscalable applications in any framework or language and just because you use a certain technology doesn't mean anything about whether you'll create an app with a good experience.

Handing a sniper rifle to someone does not make them a sniper. Snipers have personal qualities and training that make them what they are; their weapons are just tools that help them realize their inherent abilities as well as possible.

Why are you and other TechCrunch people so eager to assign blame when you don't actually know anything about what you're assigning blame for?

Because TechCrunch thinks our industry is so great that it deserves its own National Inquirer. Seriously, these people should be marginalized and put in the spotlight for the trolls that they are. I'm so sick of the bottom-feeding rumour mongering that scrapes by as journalism these days. Seriously people, stop reading TechCrunch and go checkout a book on O'Reilly Safari or something...learn something worthwhile with your spare time.

"Handing a sniper rifle to someone does not make them a sniper. Snipers have personal qualities and training that make them what they are; their weapons are just tools that help them realize their inherent abilities as well as possible."

This is a good point. But, in the interests of balance, the twitter situation could also be compared to arming a sniper with a broadsword and then being surprised he fails. The choice of analogy makes a surprising difference in how you think about the situation.

"Why are you and other TechCrunch people so eager to assign blame when you don't actually know anything about what you're assigning blame for?"

I would rephrase the question to "what do you and the other tech crunch folks know that gives you confidence in your statements about decisions at twitter".

Point being no one knows what the folks at tech crunch know (or not).

Just to keep the conversation going: what do you think Twitter's main issues are ? (Or do you think their downtime is not worth mentioning?)

Scalability problems are usually endemic to a particular setup. There is always another bottleneck. The way you're viewing scalability is different than the reality of it.

My previous company (a web testing company) did a load test for a large tax return company. When testing started, their app could support 3 simultaneous users. When the bottlenecks were removed, one by one, the same app (framework, codebase, language and all) supported north of 10,000 users. As you test, there is usually something like a database lock problem, high cpu from a loop that needs to be optimized, bad query/data layout, memory usage maxing out, or something you are running out of, one way or the other.

The people who point out that twitter is not a standard web app and might be better served by messaging have a point also.

What the parent says is that a proper assessment will require an in-depth knowledge of how it is actually implemented. Taking random shots like this article does is like a blind man trying to grope an elephant.

" Taking random shots like this article does is like a blind man trying to grope an elephant."

Groping an elephant seems like a bad idea even for the sighted.

I would like to second the call for an immediate stop to elephant groping.

Elephants are a dear and treasured species. This continual assault by blind people and various other gropers have too often left our Loxodonta Africanan friends cowering in terror.

As for RoR, I'll simply quote a good friend of mine. "RoR rocks! Scaling isn't that big a deal. Took us over six months to get the stack just right for a recent customer."

Ugh.

Actually, that is ridiculous to assume.

Well it's getting to the point where it's like a tabloid now.