HACKER Q&A
📣 mlhpdx

Would you (do you) use an unsafe HTTP API?


What I mean by "unsafe" is that the API lacks protection from the lost update[1] problem, and the answer is obviously "yes".

APIs that implement protections (like If-None-Match and the ilk) aren't uncommon, but they are the minority as far as I can tell by perusing documentation over the years. Why? It seems inevitable that lost updates have been causing problems, but perhaps never at a level that rises to the level of doing something about it?

[1] https://www.w3.org/1999/04/Editing

  👤 mlhpdx Accepted Answer ✓
In the context of YC and HN the question might be “Does having a safe API open any doors as a differentiated feature?” In my past SOC-2 was such a thing (now an expectation), and it feels like problems with data integrity are more frequent now than in the past. But still below the radar or not?