How a social network for Egors turned into an autonomous city on Node.js and SQLite

A developer shared the story of 'Egorod,' a social network originally restricted to people named Egor. What started as a joke evolved into a full-fledged digital simulation of a state, complete with a political system featuring elections, parties, deputies, and a mayor. Technically, the platform is built on a Node.js and SQLite stack. Despite a modest audience (about 30 DAU out of 11,900 registrations), the project has grown into a complex architecture with 210,000 lines of code and 176 database tables. The author notes that the small user base allowed for a simpler infrastructure while necessitating high system reliability. This case demonstrates how enthusiasm and gamification can transform a simple pet project into a large-scale software ecosystem where social interactions dictate the evolution of the technical architecture.