In the Trenches: Scaling, Stress Tests, and What’s Next
Hey everyone, here, VP of Engineering at Digg.
Big milestone this week: we just invited a large group of users from the waitlist. It was our first real pressure test at scale, and the system held up great after a bit of manual tuning to keep things snappy.
For the tech geeks: this was mostly backend plumbing (the good kind). For everyone else: Digg should feel smoother, faster, and ready for what’s next.
Why it worked:
• We had strong observability with real-time latency, error, and throughput dashboards
• We reacted fast, scaling the API and frontend client in critical moments
• We made data-driven calls instead of guesswork
Recent performance wins:
• Feed serving re-architecture cut latency in half, so feeds and posts now feel almost instant.
• These improvements will continue to hold as we add more users, and dare I say new communities (soon™)
• Voting system overhaul made things more stable, scalable, and faster under load
What we fixed during rollout:
• GIFs in comments weren’t posting, fixed within 24 hours
• Subscriber counts showing weird numbers, also fixed and live now
What’s next:
• Custom community creation is the top priority so you can build your own focused, positive spaces
• We’ll keep polishing the core experience: fast feeds, reliable voting, smooth navigation
Strong fundamentals lead to a better everyday experience, faster loads, fewer hiccups, and a platform ready to grow with you. As always if you spot anything off, tag myself or . Your reports help us fix things faster, together we can make Digg something special.
Finally, a massive shout-out to our incredible team. None of this would have been achievable without them. A huge thank you to our entire engineering staff: , , , , , , , and .
In the Trenches: Scaling, Stress Tests, and What’s Next delves into the challenges and strategies of scaling and stress testing, offering insights into future developments.