"What would I say?" — the app that plots Facebook status updates by using a Markov bot — isn't giving some users a chance to say anything right now. The website is down.
USA TODAY and friends have tried to check in from various locations. Parts of Northern Virginia and New Jersey haven't had much success this morning. But we have been able to access the website in New York City, Houston, San Diego and Tallahassee, Fla.
Ugne Klibaite, one of the developers, says it is unclear why the app is not working for some. She reported receiving feedback from users in California unable to access the website. "It is really a mystery to us," Klibaite said. The team is looking into the issue.
The creators of the Facebook app, which is trending right now on Google, include seven grad students and a Yorkie pooch named Baxter.
Users log in with their Facebook account and generate a status. The app then uses a Markov bot to use text from previous Facebook statuses and predict what you'll say next.
Once the website launched Nov. 10, it took off on social media, said Pawel Przytcki. Due to heavy amounts of traffic, the website crashed on Nov. 11 and Nov. 13.
"We weren't expecting any sort of heavy traffic," Przytcki said. "We saw 100 (visitors), then 1,000, then 350,000, and then we thought it was so unbelievable. We all have trouble sleeping right now to see how many hits our website is getting.
"It wasn't developed to be a heavy traffic website so we are working on fixing that," Przytycki said.
The app was built during a recent hackathon at the university.
One of its benefits: Users don't have to worry about the app storing any of their information. Developer Alex Furger said the information is only stored on the user's computer.
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