Ask HN: A hacker news like site in go which database would you use? - pvsukale1
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DanielStraight
Hacker News doesn't do anything nearly database intensive enough for it to
matter much.

I would suggest defaulting to PostgreSQL for all database needs unless you
have a specific reason to use something else. It is well supported on most
platforms, under very active development, and has exceptional documentation.

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brudgers
My understanding is that Hacker News does not use a database or rather it does
not use a DBMS [database management system] at all. Instead it uses the OS
file system and each item lives in its own file. It might be described as
"flatfile" and "NoSQL" but that sort of layers an additional layer of
formality on top of the simple *NIX idea that "everything is a file."

Anyway, until a few years ago, every item was had its own file and all the
files were in one directory. But it got to the point that performance could
not keep up with rising page views and Paul Graham reorganized all the items
lexicographically into a file hierarchy base on item number to improve
performance. But that optimization wasn't done until it created a problem.

It might be an interesting exercise to try to come up with reasons why an DBMS
would be a better alternative to files for Hacker News.

Good luck.

