All of the Dumb Things People Said About UploadThing

The speaker discusses negative feedback received about his company's product, UploadThing, and refutes many of the criticisms. The speaker highlights that customer needs for faster upload speeds are valid, and he defends his choices about server architecture and serverless technology, explaining the reasoning behind his decisions despite criticism for changing his stance on specific technologies.

Customer Needs & Upload Speeds

• 00:01:29 Some developers believe that customers don't care about better upload buttons, but the speaker refutes this, stating that upload and download speeds are important to users, especially when transferring large files. He cites his own experience with frame.io, where he spent a month troubleshooting slow upload and download speeds, highlighting that faster speeds are a feature that users notice and care about, especially when it impacts their workflow.

Security & S3

• 00:00:00 UploadThing aims to simplify and secure file uploads, particularly with Amazon S3. Some critics believed that security is only needed after reaching 100+ paying users or that storing images of credit cards on S3 is acceptable, which is considered a poor security practice. The speaker clarifies that security measures are important regardless of user volume.

Serverless vs. Servers

• 00:10:53 UploadThing initially utilized serverless technology but then migrated to a server-based solution for managing a large number of files. This change was necessary for handling the specific performance requirements and concurrency challenges of large file uploads, where Lambda functions faced limitations in efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The speaker clarifies that he is a strong advocate for serverless architecture but acknowledges that specific scenarios may require server solutions.

Edge Computing & Edge Runtimes

• 00:11:13 The speaker clarifies his perspective on edge computing, highlighting that he never advocated for running compute on the edge and has actively argued against it since the beginning. He discusses Edge Runtimes, focusing on their benefit of reducing cold start times in JavaScript Virtual Machines (VMs). The speaker clarifies that he prefers Edge Runtimes for their speed, but they are less capable than full Node environments.

Semantic Versioning

• 00:36:59 UploadThing has experienced 7 major version updates in one year due to frequent improvements and changes in the underlying codebase. The speaker defends the use of semantic versioning, stating that it is standard practice and essential for communicating significant changes that may break existing code. The speaker emphasizes the importance of users reading the documentation for new versions to ensure compatibility.