On 03/27/2010 09:08 AM, Carlo von Loesch wrote: > No Matt, I have to disagree with this impossible design goal. > If we stay in PHP playground land without a proper backend protocol > we will only be able to make yet another web-based social engine > without a scalable real-time link to the rest of the world.
Please don't be disparaging to PHP. > A social network in a Facebook style generates events a go-go. > Each time a user adds a comment somewhere, each time a user likes > something, writes an update, joins a group or adds a friend. > Every time a notice needs to be distributed to all peers. > This is a one-to-many operation that hasn't got a ghost of a chance > of scaling if implemented as a round-robin series of HTTP calls. How many friends does the average Facebook user have? Even it's its 10,000 -- I can't see why if I publish a status update, 10,000 other servers couldn't access a URI, similar to an RSS feed, and get the info. Even on the cheapest and nastiest of web hosting. > Is there some magic trick I am not familiar with that allows us to do > real protocols on persistent TCP connections on so-called "commodity > webhosting" or should we rather create such a profoundly important > technology that will influence "commodity webhosting" in such a way > that it will become common to support gnu social? We should focus on making something simple, which publishes its own updates in a way that other servers request them in a timely manner, rather than the individual server pushing them out. And we should do that in the lower common denominator possible -- PHP with a RDBMS. Only then will the average computer user be able to quickly set up or obtain/purchase GNU social service from a willing provider.
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