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when websites fail
2013-Nov-14, Thursday 08:45 pmIt's not surprising that websites fail beneath the onslaught of sudden heavy usage. I've seen it happen in many different scenarios.
It amuses me a little that so much noise is made about the new healthcare law and the failure of its federal website to keep up with demand. It seems that a lot of the people making that noise come from states who specifically declined to build their own website to help reduce the needs of the federal site. They turned their back, and then they complain about the result. Here in Minnesota, where we had our own online exchange, results were not horrible.
It amuses me a lot when I hear people claim that government cannot be good at such tasks, and private enterprise is necessarily better. No, it really isn't so. I've lost count of the computer games I've played where websites (in addition to game servers) simply could not keep up with traffic during their grand opening. Even my favorite project, Star Citizen, has run into that very problem. Not just once in 2012 during the original fundraising campaign, but again in 2013 with the rollout of their new website. Capitalist motivation does not make better websites and web servers. Only experience will improve performance.
And, finally, it amuses me the most when a website fails under the collective goodwill of bleeding liberal hearts trying in earnest to give away their cash to needy organizations. No kidding, it happened today. Minnesota has a recent tradition of using mid-November to "Give to the Max" by collecting donations for many non-profits on this particular day of the year. The website crashed today under the unexpectedly heavy load. Minnesotans are awesome.
I tried several times tonight, and I finally succeeded, in giving money to a few of the groups that I particularly value:
It amuses me a little that so much noise is made about the new healthcare law and the failure of its federal website to keep up with demand. It seems that a lot of the people making that noise come from states who specifically declined to build their own website to help reduce the needs of the federal site. They turned their back, and then they complain about the result. Here in Minnesota, where we had our own online exchange, results were not horrible.
It amuses me a lot when I hear people claim that government cannot be good at such tasks, and private enterprise is necessarily better. No, it really isn't so. I've lost count of the computer games I've played where websites (in addition to game servers) simply could not keep up with traffic during their grand opening. Even my favorite project, Star Citizen, has run into that very problem. Not just once in 2012 during the original fundraising campaign, but again in 2013 with the rollout of their new website. Capitalist motivation does not make better websites and web servers. Only experience will improve performance.
And, finally, it amuses me the most when a website fails under the collective goodwill of bleeding liberal hearts trying in earnest to give away their cash to needy organizations. No kidding, it happened today. Minnesota has a recent tradition of using mid-November to "Give to the Max" by collecting donations for many non-profits on this particular day of the year. The website crashed today under the unexpectedly heavy load. Minnesotans are awesome.
I tried several times tonight, and I finally succeeded, in giving money to a few of the groups that I particularly value:
- Autism Society of Minnesota (autism advocacy and services)
- OutFront (GLBT advocacy)
- Minn Post (journalism)
- Minnesota Public Radio (news)
- Animal Humane Society (animal welfare)
- Minnesota Zoo (wildlife welfare)
- Minnesota Renewable Energy Society (sustainable society advocacy)
- Typhoon Haiyan Response (Red Cross disaster relief)