Downtime
The public HAF/HafSQL node that I'm operating, hafsql.mahdiyari.info, will be down for 2 days. More info on the node is here.
This morning the HAF node on the main server died. This wouldn't be a big deal as I do also have a backup server. But unfortunately I took down the backup server couple of days ago to deploy a new code with updated HAF. So now both servers are down.
I will try to improve the whole setup to prevent this from happening again. The backup server has higher storage capacity but the main server can be upgraded. With higher storage capacity I can take snapshots of the ZFS datasets for easy and fast recovery.
It will take about 2 days to bring the node back up online.
I do apologize if this caused any inconvenience. Hopefully this will never happen again.
Update
On the other news I've been changing how Hafsql works in general. It should result in at least 50% less reindexing time. I did make things run in parallel in multiple threads. So for example comments and reputations will sync independently of each other in different threads. HAF indexes are also created at the same time that the tables are getting filled.
I also added more data to the comments. For example payout information is fully available. I'll try to add more data as possible regarding other things too.
Develop branch on HAF has been getting some breaking changes. Two columns (timestamp & op_type_id) are removed from the operations table. I had to rewrite all the views for this change.
Another big thing is the migration from NodeJS to Deno. The code is now TS instead of JS. Deno supports native TS code so there is no need for compiling. The Docker support is also great. It also can produce binaries natively.
Another change is the addition of the account balances. The balance tracker app can be used and I'll use that but I'm still waiting for the Blocktrades team to respond to my issue. I already tested it and have it planned out and it's an easy integration.
The goal would be to release a new version with the new release of the HAF. According to Blocktrades, in 1 or 2 months.
So TLDR would be that I did a complete rewrite of the code. Just have to test it a bit.
Future
When all the above is done, and hopefully will be done very soon, I'll try a new thing. A content discovery algorithm.
You can't have social features without an algorithm. We shouldn't let content die just because it's older than 2 hours.
The goal would be to have something better than nothing that can work at least to some degree. A full fledged algorithm that can compete with the other social media is a bit expensive to code and run but I don't think we need to go that far yet.
There should be an algorithm "For you" to show you the content of your following users and communities plus some sprinkle of other content that you might be interested in.
Another algorithm could be like the homepage of YouTube. Sprinkle of everything new and old.
We can extend to have better APIs for sorting and filtering content. Like sorting posts and comments by their payout time and their payout amount, or sorting by number of comments, or sorting by downvotes. The list can go on.
All the above should come with front-end support and I think our front-ends will cooperate. We can talk about the rest when the time comes.
