Free day at sparkfun

50mil hits per second? I find that hard to believe.

mfo said:

50mil hits per second? I find that hard to believe.

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It was requests, not hits IIRC. One page load usually results in quite a few requests to the server.

Come on people!!! There's no need to argue over the details, or to tell people to stop whining.


This was an awesome offer made to the public by a business.

This business failed in the technology side to assist their customers (new and returning) in placing orders.

This generated many mixed feelings. I know I for one was really pissed after 2 hours of failed website loads. I couldn't even add anything to my cart, or even create an account.

This, from a new customer's standpoint, is major fail on the part of this business. When your own website can't handle the influx of requests from the numerous people trying to access your website, especially after you publicly announce such a deal and even acknowledge your servers will probably die... well, that's pretty much admitting that they knew the majority of people would fail at placing their order, but oh well. Too bad.

The point is: Many people devoted a lot of time trying to get through to the site to make a purcahse, only to get constant error messages or timeouts or whatever. Anyone would be upset about that. And there's nothing wrong with feeling disappointed, or like you wasted time, or that the business could have done something different to make the event less stressful.

Maybe they'll be able to handle the popularity better next time.

They spent thousands of dollars for new redundant servers, thousands of dollars for upgraded internet connections, and gave away $100,000 worth of free merchandise... I can hardly see why you guys are complaining... They were only expecting a couple million greedy freeloaders, instead they got tens of millions. You're complaining that they didn't spend even *more* money trying to give things away for free? This is like a car dealership saying we're giving away a free car to the first ten customers today, then you guys are complaining that you can't push and shove people through the door because it's too small. The dealership already bought bigger doors specifically for the giveaway, what more do you want? You're pissed off at the *company* because they didn't make it easier enough for you to get things for *free*? I'm sure that the bandwidth from all the people hitting the site today is going to cost them a huge five digit hosting bill this month.

Even if I couldn't get in on it, I still applaud them for the gesture... This is unprecedented.

pseudolobster said:

They spent thousands of dollars for new redundant servers, thousands of dollars for upgraded internet connections, and gave away $100,000 worth of free merchandise... I can hardly see why you guys are complaining... They were only expecting a couple million greedy freeloaders, instead they got tens of millions. You're complaining that they didn't spend even *more* money trying to give things away for free? This is like a car dealership saying we're giving away a free car to the first ten customers today, then you guys are complaining that you can't push and shove people through the door because it's too small. The dealership already bought bigger doors specifically for the giveaway, what more do you want? You're pissed off at the *company* because they didn't make it easier enough for you to get things for *free*? I'm sure that the bandwidth from all the people hitting the site today is going to cost them a huge five digit hosting bill this month.

Even if I couldn't get in on it, I still applaud them for the gesture... This is unprecedented.

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I'm with you 100% on this one PL...:beer:
What a bunch of whinny brats....:crackup:

Jerry

There's a phrase that describes this perfectly: "Sour grapes".
Sour grapes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sour grapes

Anyways, here's a couple wrapup posts that talk about the day in general:
Make: Online : SparkFun Free Day aftermath
SparkFun Electronics - News - 2010.01.07

daveindelaware said:

Come on people!!! There's no need to argue over the details, or to tell people to stop whining.


This was an awesome offer made to the public by a business.

This business failed in the technology side to assist their customers (new and returning) in placing orders.

This generated many mixed feelings. I know I for one was really pissed after 2 hours of failed website loads. I couldn't even add anything to my cart, or even create an account.

This, from a new customer's standpoint, is major fail on the part of this business. When your own website can't handle the influx of requests from the numerous people trying to access your website, especially after you publicly announce such a deal and even acknowledge your servers will probably die... well, that's pretty much admitting that they knew the majority of people would fail at placing their order, but oh well. Too bad.

The point is: Many people devoted a lot of time trying to get through to the site to make a purcahse, only to get constant error messages or timeouts or whatever. Anyone would be upset about that. And there's nothing wrong with feeling disappointed, or like you wasted time, or that the business could have done something different to make the event less stressful.

Maybe they'll be able to handle the popularity better next time.

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Maybe they should have warned people that this would probably happen...Oh wait they did! :twak:

oh well its over now . only thing digikey needs is paypal

So you are boycotting it because you didn't get anything free from them. They said the servers would be overloaded, and you didn't listen.

robjdixon said:

So you are boycotting it because you didn't get anything free from them. They said the servers would be overloaded, and you didn't listen.

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Na, just waisted 2 hrs ;P. Ill order from thim still if the others are out of parts

I don't really care anymore, I was just bummed... I won't boycott somebody cause I didn't win a contest, that seems immature, but I'll only buy from them if they have the best price... same as anyone else.

will

Sparkfun's 4-point purpose of Free Day:

1. Giving back to customers for a stellar year
2. Fairly give away $100 worth of stuff to "everyone"
3. Test the new server cluster
4. Celebrate 7 years with a party

The reality of Free Day was probably much different than anyone expected. As for #1 above, it was a great gesture. Not many companies would do something like this. I do give SF credit on this one.

But #2 wasn't too fair in that only the lucky people got to place their orders successfully. I don't think it even mattered what sort of internet connection you had, or where you were geographically. It was pure stupid luck that you either got in or got error messages.

And with #3, yeah, they tested their servers. I'd say it was a huge eye-opener with the sheer number of people who couldn't even access any of the pages, yet alone their accounts.

And I'm not sure how much fun #4 really was for anyone, including SF. I'm sure they've gotten a mix of positive and negative comments in email, blogs, forums, etc. And I'm guessing there's some cleanup to be done from Free Day.

As a company, I'm sure they got waaaaaay more publicity and marketing than they could have ever dreamed of. I can't even imagine exactly how many people heard about this event and tried to "cash in" on the deal. Did they make everyone happy? Obviously not. Did they succeed in getting their name out there? Yes. I had never heard of them until I read about their Free Day here on LPF.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying that I'm boycotting this place. As a new customer I would have loved to get started in this hobby with some free components which only cost me S&H. And this was the first time I ever tried to buy such things. And my experience with SF has only been frustration from the failed connectivity w/ their servers and lost time constantly trying to get into their pages. Oh, well. It's a new week, and I can still go to my local Radio Shack instead. LOL.

It was an experience for everyone involved. And with everything, there are good and bad experiences. It's what you learn from these experiences that matters most. And I learned a few things.

sightfx said:

Maybe they should have warned people that this would probably happen...Oh wait they did!

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Yes, they did, minimally. They kind of down-played it. I don't think they had any idea just how significantly this event was going to kill their servers, and how many frustrated people they'd have at the end of this event. Or, maybe they did, and it doesn't matter. I dunno.

They could have selected the people who could take a free order. A moron ordered 200 green leds, how the hell would they allow that...

Hallucynogenyc said:

They could have selected the people who could take a free order. A moron ordered 200 green leds, how the hell would they allow that...

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Hmmm... maybe that moron is going to connect them all together to try to make a green DPSS laser?

:crackup: