[HN Gopher] The Exclusive Website
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       The Exclusive Website
        
       Author : zuhayeer
       Score  : 63 points
       Date   : 2021-02-08 20:57 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (exclusive.website)
 (TXT) w3m dump (exclusive.website)
        
       | recursivedoubts wrote:
       | theory: it never lets you in
       | 
       | the experience of wanting to get in is the experience
        
         | Xevi wrote:
         | It's an old website. I got in last time I tried about two years
         | ago.
         | 
         | If I remember correctly you see a message from the person who
         | got in before you, and then you write a message for the next
         | one in line.
        
           | recursivedoubts wrote:
           | that's exactly what I would expect someone in on the art
           | project to say
        
         | fireball_blaze wrote:
         | It's about the friends we made along the way?
        
       | owl57 wrote:
       | At first it showed me a 500 error. This time I'm unsure if it is
       | the usual HN effect or a variation of the joke.
        
       | mfkp wrote:
       | I was up to #97 in line, then it pushed me back to #392... I
       | demand a refund.
        
         | whymauri wrote:
         | I'd like to talk to the manager >:(
         | 
         | I don't think it ever lets you in, haha.
        
         | gorkish wrote:
         | It's buggy as shit. If you lose the websocket for any reason it
         | falls back to a polling mode which appears to be completely
         | broken. I know it's just for fun, but as someone who has
         | written a very robust distributed FIFO queue before, this
         | implementation ... bothers me.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | insickness wrote:
         | Look, they don't let just anybody into the website. It's
         | exclusive.
        
           | elliekelly wrote:
           | OP needs a "grease the bouncer" button and an "upload selfie"
           | button to let wealthy and attractive people skip the line.
        
         | whoomp12342 wrote:
         | its like trying to get into the roxbury.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | grishka wrote:
       | Hmmmmmmm.                   We know what you're thinking...
       | and yes,         you really can get into the website.
        
       | dt3ft wrote:
       | Getting 500, internal (exclusive?) server error...
        
         | tcgv wrote:
         | I'm guessing it's due to HN's hug of death
        
       | ffpip wrote:
       | > The last entry into the website was Tuesday, February 9 2021
       | 2:46AM
       | 
       | Dear Random HN person please get off the site. It's been 10 mins
       | now.
        
       | jaytaylor wrote:
       | Reminds me of the BBS days, where for the good sites it was
       | necessary to keep re-dialing until you got through!
       | 
       | I never did make it into L0pht.
        
         | themodelplumber wrote:
         | Funny! I remember getting a taste of a few really good ones, in
         | my case some of the PNW high-graphics BBSes in '95 or so, and
         | then not being able to get through again for days...a
         | frustrating experience. Same with download quotas for new
         | users. :-)
        
       | jcoletti wrote:
       | Waiting music reminds me of the hotel lobby in Leisure Suit Larry
       | 6.
        
         | quercusa wrote:
         | I was thinking the elevator scene at the end of The Blues
         | Brothers.
        
       | whymauri wrote:
       | I love this! Reminds me of when people just made random tiny
       | websites for fun.
       | 
       | Uh, my number keeps going up but I'm not leaving the tab :(
       | 
       | Edit: somehow I became the first person in the queue
       | https://i.redd.it/r9b2dz5dnbg61.png
       | 
       | I left to give the next person the slot :P
        
         | sharkweek wrote:
         | There was a website I used to love sending people to when I was
         | in middle school (crashme dot com, just a parked domain now).
         | 
         | It had this bomb timer-like countdown clock and a big warning
         | that it would destroy your computer if it reached zero. Totally
         | pointless, but was always fun back before I really understood
         | too much about this brave new world of internet.
        
         | nicoburns wrote:
         | It's the number of people in the queue that counts up, not your
         | place in the queue.
        
       | ivraatiems wrote:
       | Quick feedback: I had to press "play sound" twice before it
       | muted, because of autoplay.
       | 
       | This is a fun experiment. Can't wait to get in.
       | 
       | Edit: Okay, the number keeps jumping around... clearly something
       | fishy going on here. Maybe it's only sessions that are currently
       | connected that are included? ;)
        
       | spazx wrote:
       | Suddenly, the number of people in front of me started going UP.
        
       | markdown wrote:
       | Was just a blank page for me. Had to refresh to see anything...
       | and find out I was in a queue.
        
       | atdixon wrote:
       | To Webmaster: How much $$ to jump first in line?
        
       | ravenstine wrote:
       | I'm getting a 500 internal server error.
       | 
       | It's kind of funny how these contemporary webpages crash under
       | the load of HN, but the few times we link to sites from 1996 they
       | somehow manage to remain online. The other day I remember people
       | trying to link to the pages with the oldest images they could
       | find and I'm pretty sure none of the pages suffered from the hug
       | of death.
        
         | eat_veggies wrote:
         | I guess this is easier to hug to death since it's stateful and
         | (based on other comments) opens a websocket per user
        
         | hypertele-Xii wrote:
         | You missed the joke. It's trying to be exclusive, so it gives a
         | 500 error to all visitors the first time they come. Refresh,
         | and you'll... almost get in.
        
       | smitty1e wrote:
       | Recalls uselessaccount.com
       | 
       | https://web.archive.org/web/*/uselessaccount.com
       | 
       | Which has apparently been hijacked by something blog-like.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | srl wrote:
       | In firefox, trying to 'view source' yields the source for a 500
       | internal server error.
       | 
       | Does that mean that firefox makes a different request when I
       | click "view source"? As in, from the server logs, someone could
       | in principle discover whether a request was created by clicking
       | "view source"?
       | 
       | Also, like everybody else, I'm here to report that the counter
       | does _not_ decrease monotonically :(
        
         | lights0123 wrote:
         | But only the first time. Reloading the page or clicking "View
         | source" again made it appear for me. Of course, it's possible
         | that was just random chance like others experienced:
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26070729
        
       | valentinvieriu wrote:
       | I've opened it on 2 devices and showed 2 different numbers. So
       | either the counter is fake, or there is a load balancer issue :)
        
         | grishka wrote:
         | It definitely is not fake, it updates through a websocket.
        
       | 101008 wrote:
       | Is it using any kind of IP or something like that to recognize
       | the place in queue? I was around 100, I pasted the link on a
       | Whatsapp conversation to share it (I guess it did a request to
       | get a preview), and when I came back to the tab I was last in the
       | queue.
        
         | theginger wrote:
         | I've lost my place quite a few times, i can't tell if it is by
         | design due to navigating away or the websocket flaking out
         | because of too many people.
        
           | greenshackle2 wrote:
           | Definitely flaking out. I had the tab open on a monitor, it
           | said I got disconnected then I got booted to the end of the
           | queue.
        
         | grishka wrote:
         | It stores a UUID-looking string in localStorage and uses that
         | to retrieve your position in the queue. At least that's what I
         | gathered from looking at requests and trying to make sense of
         | obfuscated JS.
        
       | theginger wrote:
       | i opened dev tools and lost my place in the queue :(
        
         | werds wrote:
         | my friend... developers are not allowed in
        
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       (page generated 2021-02-08 23:01 UTC)