It's time to say goodbye! 🍗🦴🦴😢

[zvictor]

As you may be aware, Fauna has recently declared the termination of their GraphQL API, which inevitably leaves us unable to extend further support for Brainyduck.

Although our user community has always been tiny, I strongly feel the necessity to share my thoughts before we turn the lights off.

Firstly, I want to highlight that the new FQL from Fauna is superb, and I entirely comprehend their decision to discontinue the GraphQL API. Ideally, I would - spoiler: I definitely won't! - migrate all my database code to leverage their advanced technology, so there's no resentment over this one move.

However, the neglect shown towards developers by Fauna is disheartening. The Brainyduck project, in its entirety, has hardly received any endorsement or support from them. Our sole recognition was being relunctantly included in their "Awesome list" - it took them a whole year to accept the 1 line PR I submitted asking to be included there, but hey! who is complaining?

To illustrate the lack of support, let's revisit our most recent incident:

I reached out to Fauna with a plan to assist Brainyduck users in transitioning seamlessly to the new FQL. Around that same time, I had started receiving emails indicating that the use of Brainyduck exceeded the limits of the free plan it was utilizing and access would be removed by the end of the month.

Brainyduck was using more than the free plan's 5 databases quota and they wanted to start billing for that. Note that nothing had changed in Brainyduck, but in Fauna's way to measure the consumption of their services.

Consequently, I requested access to a sponsored account only during the GraphQL sunset program, a measure that wouldn't incur extra operational cost to them given that the use from Brainyduck would not be any different than before, but would guarantee that Brainyduck would remain operational and aiding users to transition to Fauna's new tech without requiring me to spend extra $25/month on a project they are forcing me to shutdown. The response was in line with all their previous requests for support - 'no'.

In short, dedicating my own time and development efforts helping the community adopt Fauna's new tech was not enough, I was supposed to contribute with money.

Sure, they're not obligated to endorse, like or promote my project in any way. However, their seemingly indifferent stance towards their users, in the wake of the discontinuation of their until-then most promoted product, the GraphQL API, is alarming. Despite being offered an uncomplicated and cost-effective way to soften the blow for a section of their affected users, their seeming indifference was frustrating!

Nevertheless, this is merely the concluding chapter of a saga that arguably should never have commenced, so I will refrain from delving into the minutiae. In essence, Brainyduck was always set up to fail given its success was intrinsically tied to a company that had little interest in its prospects, despite being the biggest beneficiary of it.

The collapse of this project is a direct result of the transformation in Fauna’s strategic direction, a change that became starkly evident when they overhauled their pricing. What was once a stimulating and developer-centric “pay as you go” plan metamorphosed into a “business up or go home” model. The termination of GraphQL/Brainyduck is just a reverberation of this sentiment: unless you're a sizeable client, you are irrelevant.

Fauna is entirely within their rights to strategize and position their market presence as they see fit, and I do not blame them for that. I was the one making a bad judgment call back in the day when i wrongly assumed (i can’t remember why) they were a company developer-centered and committed to opening up, as opposed to closing down. I was wrong on both accounts. My advice, unless you operate at the enterprise level, you should avoid engaging with them.

Unless they decide to go fully open source, I plan to refrain from ever using their databases again, despite recognizing them as the best I've ever utilized.

As a personal takeaway, I was once again reminded of the importance of exercising more discernment when committing to external projects (apparently I have a recurring problem here 😂). I've poured over 300 commits and many weeks in the span of 2 years into this endeavor, and while it's challenging to find any other silver lining, it hasn't dampened my spirit or determination to create innovative solutions. I've already pivoted to build something new (soon at brainy.app), so please stay tuned and follow me at @fuckingbrainy for updates!

For those of you seeking a next-generation database, let me assure you, there are a lot more options popping up in the market these days and they are all very promising. For now, I'll be taking a step back and opting for more traditional and boring platforms like Amplify for my upcoming projects. I'm also keeping a close eye on promising databases like SurrealDB and hoping for its mature evolution.

Good luck, and goodbye, duckers! 🦆🍗🦴🦴😢

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tldr: Fauna is the best technology you and I should stay away from.