Questions in the dark
Frequently asked questions
What this place is, how it works, and how to add your own tale to the fire.
- What is o11yhorrors?
- o11yhorrors is a collection of true observability war stories from on-call engineers. Each tale describes a real incident involving metrics, logs, traces, dashboards, or alerts, and ends with the lesson it taught. The name uses o11y, the common numeronym for observability (o, eleven letters, y).
- Are the stories real?
- Yes. Every tale is based on a real incident. Service names, company names, and identifying details are changed or removed to protect the people and teams involved, but the failures and the lessons are genuine.
- Can I submit my own observability horror story?
- Yes. Use the submit page to send your tale. Every submission is read by a human before anything is published. Nothing goes live automatically, and you choose what name to publish under, including staying anonymous.
- Will my name or my employer be published?
- Only what you choose. You can submit under a handle, a generic role like on-call, payments, or no name at all. We recommend leaving out real company names, customer data, and anything that could identify a specific person.
- What makes a good observability horror story?
- The best tales are specific and honest. They describe what you saw, what was actually happening underneath, and what you changed afterward. A clear lesson is what turns a war story into something the next engineer can learn from.
- What does o11y mean?
- o11y is shorthand for observability. The 11 stands for the eleven letters between the o and the y, the same way i18n stands for internationalization and k8s for Kubernetes.
- How do you approve submissions?
- A submitted story is delivered privately for review and opened as a proposed change to the site. A maintainer reads it, edits lightly if needed, and approves it. Once approved, the tale joins the collection for everyone to read.
Still have a question? Reach the keepers of the fire at tales@o11yhorrors.com.