Software Delay Timeouts

Discussions center on the durations of timeouts and artificial delays in software, debating long waits like 5 minutes versus shorter alternatives like seconds for better performance and user experience.

➡️ Stable 0.6x Web Development
4,440
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#4625
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
7
2008
37
2009
62
2010
119
2011
140
2012
155
2013
188
2014
185
2015
220
2016
220
2017
221
2018
238
2019
234
2020
398
2021
311
2022
450
2023
392
2024
398
2025
435
2026
30

Keywords

IMO SLO SELECT reddit.com github.com RandomizedDelaySec MQTT delay seconds timeout sleep minutes wait function second timer minute

Sample Comments

jermaustin1 • Oct 6, 2019 • View on HN

It's a 5 minute delay. But it can be changed easily.

ddoeth • Feb 19, 2020 • View on HN

They should just have set the timeout to half a second and no one would have noticed

saagarjha • Jan 16, 2021 • View on HN

Waiting 5 minutes for a bunch of things adds up.

abraham • May 8, 2012 • View on HN

Replacing the currently indefinite delay with a 3-4 second one sounds like an improvement.

VikingCoder • Jan 6, 2017 • View on HN

Because users don't wait 90 seconds for something stupid like this?

samstave • Aug 15, 2015 • View on HN

Timeouts are better than grounding.

6510 • Feb 5, 2024 • View on HN

I imagine a 3 minute delay on everything would work.

Hikikomori • Jun 30, 2025 • View on HN

Doesn't work because of the delay.

greglindahl • Nov 22, 2015 • View on HN

Wait - for "fail fast" reasons, we're going to do something important every few thousand years, instead of about once a year?!

rkwasny • Jul 8, 2023 • View on HN

Now they have a 5 second delay? :-)