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0 pointsxPaw5y ago0 comments

Is HN actually filtering these, or they use utf8 in mysql which is famously not full utf8mb4?

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4 comments · 1 top-level

capableweb5y ago· 3 in thread

Hah, you think HN would use something mainstream like mysql?! I don't blame you.

But HN is 100% custom software, and built with it's own programming language as well, Arc (on Racket). AFAIK, HN still runs on files-as-a-db. You could check out the source here: http://arclanguage.org/install

gus_massa5y ago

That release is quite outdated. They added a lot of stuff to filter spam, voting ring detectors, and other moderation stuff. Anyway, as far as I know, everything is still saved to the file system.

enriquto5y ago

Why "still" ? Is there anything wrong in using the filesystem as a database when it suits to do so ?

capableweb5y ago

Nope, I'm not implying it's bad, just that they used to do that and they still do that to this day. I have nothing against storing data in files. In fact, I do that all the time myself too.

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