Dealing with a big L

[tim316]

Ooof! Everyone posts their success stories, how about a big ol failure to balance things out. I just realized the script responsible for syncing my development database and multiple production databases wasn't working properly. I always spot checked a few databases after an update - turns out I only checked the databases that got synced properly, by fluke.

Had I checked a few more, I would have found this bug earlier... like months earlier.

Now I lie here, after fixing the bug, trying to convince myself to get back on the horse (I will, after a little mental rest). Cant help but think of all the customers that came on board and left over the last few months, that are a direct result of this bug.

Live and learn, but man this blows. So if your having a less then stellar day ... so am I.

 

[randy2844]

@tim316 Shit happens, mate. Fix it, test it. Once you're sure everything is good to go, email all your affected users and give them a few year (or some free time) to make up for their trouble. If possible, even try to contact them by phone and have a conversation with them and see if they have any other feedback and apologize to them. Explain the situation and how the error was missed and how it may have affected their service. Chances are, you can most likely get those users back, most of them will respect the fact that you take responsibility and take the time to reach out to them. Good luck!

 

[tim316]

@randy2844 Thanks bud, yup working up the courage to fire out those emails.

 

[deecruz]

@tim316 Making mistakes is merely the result of doing things. Have some drinks tonight and get back at it tomorrow. Good luck!

 

[phileas007]

@tim316 There's a quote I really like for moments like this.

"You will make mistakes. But the biggest mistake is not doing anything at all. Progress, not perfection."

 

[tim316]

@phileas007 Thanks, that's a good quote.

 

[joshuason]

@tim316 Honestly this could happen to any of us. Appreciate you sharing.

 

[tim316]

@joshuason Thanks

 

[613jono]

@tim316 Comparison is the killer of joy, remember as long as you're not a criminal, and always focused on progress, you will have your day. Happy Coding.

 

[scolastica]

@tim316 What kind of SaaS are you offering?

 

[tim316]

@scolastica B2b saas

 

[scolastica]

@tim316 I meant the sector

 

[613jono]

@tim316 What is the architecture regarding multi-tenancy? I assume single? As you have now had to learn the hard way yourself: Infrastructure solves multi-tenancy problems less efficiently than software. Or the other way around: software always solves multi-tenancy problems better than infrastructure.

 

[simon84]

@tim316 Damn that sucks. If it makes you feel better, I've been blocked, ignored, downvoted into oblivion, and ghosted by warm contacts this week trying to do some light marketing.

 

[brittjc]

@simon84 Posted about my gamedev experience that lead to creation of a project management tool and got destroyed in a comment section

It felt so bad

 

[simon84]

@brittjc I'm sorry.

 

[brittjc]

@simon84 It’s fine now, life goes on!

 

[thomass]

@tim316 Are you able to identify which customers were experiencing this and email them?

Also - potentially you've stumbled upon a new SaaS product you can build i.e. identifying bugs proactively?

 

[karix]

@tim316 Dudeee i know the feels. Same boat at times - but I think that happens to everyone, its just how you deal with the aftermath.

I remember when we first launched, we had this huge issue where people loggining on had visiiloty on other people's account data or sometimes their data would wipe.

We did a big migration one day (I used to run an e-commerce platform like shipify) and after we migrated, every one of our 1,000+ user's website data was wiped. Lucky we had a back up but it was a json file, so we had to re-seed everything. But that was a shit shit shit low.

Came across this Cool articles about others who failed and became successful

I guess that's what make or breaks people. There's a really good post cast called "how i built this with guy raz" https://open.spotify.com/show/6E709HRH7XaiZrMfgtNCun

Listen to some of those stories. It'll make you more motivated I promise.

Godd luck fella

 

[nehemiah126]

@tim316 Learn from your mistakes and move on