> One of the jobs performed by our smaller facilities is to respond to DNS queries. DNS is the address book of the internet, enabling the simple web names we type into browsers to be translated into specific server IP addresses.
What is the target audience of this post? It is too technical for non-technical people, but also it is dumbed down to try to include people that does not know how the internet works. I feel like I'm missing something.
I'm guessing it has multiple target audiences. Those that won't understand some of the technical jargon (e.g., "IP addresses") will still be able to follow the general flow of the article.
Those of us who are familiar with the domain of knowledge, on the other hand, get a decent summary of events.
It's a balancing act. I think the article does a good enough job of explaining things.
With an outage this big, even a post for a technical audience will get read by non-technical people (including journalists), so I'm sure it helps to include details like this.
Huh? I would hardly describe this as technical. Someone with a high school education can read it and get the gist. It's actually somewhat impressive how it toes the line between accessibility and 'just detailed enough'.
I'm reading your comment as a form of "feigning surprise", in other words a statement along the lines of "I can't believe target audience doesn't know about x concept".
There are plenty of technical people (or people employed in technical roles) who don't understand how DNS works. For example, I field questions on why "hostname X only works when I'm on VPN" at work.
Both those groups of people. I imagine, they would either be accused of it being either too complicated or dumbed down, so they do both in the same article.
FB is under no obligation to provide more details than they need to because a small segment of the population (certainly relative to their 'customers') might find it interesting or helpful or entertaining. FB is a business. They can essentially do (and should be able to) do whatever they want. There is no requirement (and there should be no requirement) to provide the general public with more info than they want subject to any legal requirement. If the government wants more (and are entitled to more info) they can ask for it and FB can decide if they are required to comply.
FB is a business. Their customers are not the tech community looking to get educated and avoid issues themselves at their companies or (as mentioned) be entertained. And their customers (advertisers or users) can decide if they want to continue to patronize FB.
I always love on HN seeing 'hey where is the post mortem' as if it's some type of defacto requirement to air dirty laundry to others.
If I go to the store and there is not paper towels there I don't need to know why there are no towels and what the company will do going forward to prevent any errors that caused the lack of that product. I can decide to buy another brand or simply take steps to not have it be an issue.
That the main form of personal communication for hundreds of millions of users is down and there is no mandatory reporting is irresponsible. That Facebook is a business does not mean that they do not have responsibilities towards society.
Facebook is not your local supermarket, it has global impact.
One would imagine a large local supermarket going down would owe the people it serves some explanation. That's where their food comes from.
At this point, I am completely sick of the pro-corporate rhetoric to let businesses do whatever they want. They exist to serve the public and they should be treated as such.
> If I go to the store and there is not paper towels there I don't need to know why there are no towels
You don't _need_ to know, but it's human to want to know, and it's also human to want to satisfy other human's curiosity, especially if it doesn't bring any harm to you.
Also, your post is not really answering any of GP's questions. I presume you wanted to say that FB doesn't _owe_ any explanation to us, but the GP asked, as they already provided one, to whom is it addressed.
What is the target audience of this post? It is too technical for non-technical people, but also it is dumbed down to try to include people that does not know how the internet works. I feel like I'm missing something.