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Comment by vorticalbox | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure why there is a database at all, if you want messages to just appear and not stick around you could do this over websockets and never need to touch a database

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I'm brand new to full stack so I have no idea what I'm doing. Kind of figuring it out as I go along. Decided to start with short polling since I was having trouble getting websockets working and just wanted to get a v1.0 out in the wild.

Switching over to websockets eventually is 100% on my mind, but I have a near infinite amount of work to do on all fronts so we'll see when I have time!

Good on you. Learning about DB structure is far more important than websockets when starting out full-stack. You’d need to run your own websocket server anyway or pay through the nose for a service like Pusher (or stay on the free tier and not learn a single thing about either).

You choose well! Nice job, keep at it :)

I agree absolutely - just want to add that learning when not to use a db, which db to use when you need one, and which network protocols to use for an application, is also important

Not sure what your backend is, but websockets are pretty straightforward with socket.io! Happy to help get you up to speed - don't hesitate to reach out (@maxverse on twitter, email in profile)

Great job figuring things out as you go, and I love the experience. Keep up the good work!

Congrats for the little project, pls opensource the db!

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