Computer Science engineers across the world had spent a very torrid half an hour yesterday.
It wasn’t because of a new superbug that was threatening their systems, or because a global mandate had declared that they must wear formals at work. StackOverflow, the computer programmer’s bible, had a brief outage.
StackOverflow is an online community in which Computer Science engineers help each other with programming questions. Through its repository that spans several years, it has questions and answers on nearly any programming problem that one might encounter. And with its reassuring presence suddenly going missing, programmers everywhere ended up feeling a little lost.
What do you mean @StackOverflow is down? ? How are we supposed to do our jobs without it? ? pic.twitter.com/caIKdahLyC
— Kaan Mamikoglu (@kaanmamikoglu) January 24, 2017
Soon panic set in.
@StackOverflow is down?! How do I code now?
— Greg Blass (@greg_blass) January 24, 2017
StackOverflow down! This is not a drill! #panic
— Nicolas L. Drapeau (@lavoiedn) January 24, 2017
@StackOverflow is down! Please, everybody keep calm and take a breath… AND PRAY FOR OUR SOULS!! xD pic.twitter.com/BIugMfVF4P
— Joan Jané (@jjane90) January 24, 2017
#stackoverflow is down! The apocalypse has happened!
— Chris Wood (@c_wood) January 24, 2017
The creative ones put their meme hats on.
Troubleshooting a problem, when stackoverflow goes down https://t.co/xQXIV41vsl pic.twitter.com/0GLpdBXcL9
— spencer owen (@spencer450) January 24, 2017
“.@StackOverflow was never down.” #alternativefacts pic.twitter.com/kfPnG7QkIe
— Joshua Hynes (@hellohynes) January 24, 2017
Some chose the easy way out.
Oh no @StackOverflow is down – I guess I should stop for the day and go home …
— Phil Taylor (@blueflameit) January 24, 2017
StackOverflow is down for maintenance and I'm seriously considering just taking today as a vacation day.
— Devin (@DividedReality) January 24, 2017
Not sure how I'm expected to get any work done while stackoverflow is down for maintenance. Perhaps I should go home?
— Solidarity&Resist (@jeffpollet) January 24, 2017
Others wondered about the ramifications on global programming productivity.
And with that, programming around the world comes to a halt #stackoverflowdown 🙁 pic.twitter.com/0G63xTx9tf
— Earl Cahill (@spackest) January 24, 2017
And a global problem it was – there were Tweets in French, Spanish, German and Italian. The world had cried out in terror as one.
+++ @StackOverflow é down, chiudete internet +++ #giudiziouniversale #sischerza pic.twitter.com/vwstRmVGjw
— Shamar Droghetti (@ShamarDrg) January 24, 2017
Lange haben wir Witze darüber gemacht.
Jetzt ist es passiert.Stackoverflow ist down /o pic.twitter.com/9v8anVIg53
— Joschal (@Joschal_) January 24, 2017
Someone, though, was perhaps asking the most important question of all.
If @StackOverflow is down, where do their engineers go to find out how to fix it? ?
— Travis Veazey (@travisvz) January 24, 2017