[brandonb]

Complexity. We have 10x more code, 10x more components, and 10x more layers than we need. If the initial architecture had been dirt-simple, I don't think the site would have had so much trouble scaling or staying up. But, of course, removing complexity without breaking things takes longer than adding it in the first place.

The other big problem is operations — many steps are done manually which should be done with tools like chef or puppet. When you have a lot of manual steps in your deploy process, it makes the whole system harder to scale, test, modify, and keep running. "Devops" has become a buzzword but it's definitely needed here.

[keithwarren]

Was there consideration given to doing a wholesale rewrite and later swapping out for that? Seems that if things are overly complex now, it may be easier to hold it together with band-aids while a true long term build is put together...what is going on behind the scenes with respect to this kind of planning?

[keyhole_downs]

Better call Scott!