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IT's English Channel: Issue 000, 从 cloudflare 宕机学习 Status Page 的英语表达

Hello, 各位读者和听众们,欢迎来到 FS IT’s English Channel.

0. 频道介绍

这是频道的第零期内容,所以先简单介绍下这个频道的定位、动机和内容构成。

定位

我们预期面向的受众是有英语学习需求或动机的 IT 、科技行业从业者。当然如果是随机的你又随机地遇到了这个频道,并且还觉得值得一看,那可就太好嘞。

动机

我之前有幸出国工作一年半,作为社恐,英语又不好,就主要通过“偷学别人的句子 + ChatGPT 解释扩展 + 重复跟读来”学习的英语。这不说效果显著吧,至少也比没有强。现在我辞职回国,没有班上,又不想落下英语和行业信息,本着自我监督和建立个人 IP 想法,就弄了这个频道。

内容规划

  • 数据源是一手的英语 IT、科技新闻 & 知识;目前看应该会包括:

    • Hacker News, TechChurch, The Verge X, Reddit 等
    • 技术 Docs/Papers
    • Github 上的开源项目等
  • 加工流程包括:

    • 筛选 (curating) 出有英语学习价值的单词、句子和段落;
    • 基于 AI 做一些重点解释和扩展;
    • 配上用于收听的全文音频;
    • 提供用于练习的资料:更结构化的英语部分文本,以及对应的 TTS 音频。
  • 版块设计:老实说现在没想好。因为 IT 领域也太广了,单独领域覆盖窄;且选择技术类文档阅评吧,没想好如何平衡技术内容完整性和英语知识点密度的问题。哎,搞自媒体不简单啊。目前就准备先做新闻类的文章,有必要时做一点深度扩展吧。

  • 更新频次:先保证一周 2 更,坚持 6 个月再说。

  • 盈利模式:应该就是常规的广告模式吧,不过长期目标的还是积累自己的品牌,方便后续推销自己开发的应用。扯太远了,先做好内容吧,其他都是不可求的。

好,这就是本频道的一个 config 了,下面开始第零期的内容吧。

1. 本期内容

本期内容围绕 Hacker News 上 “Cloudflare Down Again” 的话题,先看看 Hacker News 上的口语化评论,接着看下 Cloudflare status 页面上的书面描述,最后再来学习下 best practices for status pages.

Part1:
Cloudflare Down Again

先看 Hacker News 上这个讨论的标题

Cloudflare Down Again

它并非一个完整句子——只有主语 Cloudflare、形容词 Down 和副词 Again, 缺了谓语。可以补一个 is 句子就完整了。这种省略谓语系动词(linking verb, be verb)的句式,在标题这个位置是非常常见的(或者说这种就叫 headline-style),在推文、口语里也常用。

Q: 是不是也可以认为不是省略了 is, 而是把 Down 看做一个动词呢?

A(ChatGPT): No,down 虽然有动词用法,但一般表示击倒、放倒 (e.g. He downed the opponent in 10 seconds) ,用得很少。这里做省略谓语的形容词讲更合适。

扩展
表示网站挂了,除了是 is down, 也可以用 went down. 注意,is 是现在时(present tense)表示状态, went 用过去时 (past tense) 表示过去发生的行为。
那进一步我们又有问题:这里标题省略的可能是 went 吗?答案是不太可能。因为英语标题默认只能省略系动词 be,而不能省略实义动词(如 went)。

OK,标题看完,我们点进去看评论,这条评论挺有意思,我们拉出来:

Yes. Weird that https://www.cloudflarestatus.com/ isn't reporting this properly. It should be full of red blinking lights.

我们先关注单词

weird

collins 释义 very strange or unusual and difficult to explain, “奇怪的” 意思。 这个单词我以前基本闻所未闻,但出国后发现这个词在 slack、论坛等口语化场景里用的频率极高,远超 strange 这个词。

这种词频感受,与 collins 的词频统计是不符合的——在 collins 词频统计里,weird 是 2 星,但 strange 却有 4 星。其原因大概率是统计样本不一致:collins 统计的主要是(时效性不强的)书面语词频,不能很好反应快速变化的口语化词频。而 weird 恰恰是在现代互联网阶段(2010~)使用量暴增的。这是这类传统词典的缺陷。 不过好在现在有吃了全网数据的大模型在,我们一定程度上可以规避这种偏差了。

对主评论是说 status page 没有及时反应当前宕机状态的问题,大家热烈进行了交流,我们接着来看 2 个有意思的子评论.

Yeah. I only work for a small company, but you can be certain we will not update the status page if only a small portion of customers are affected, and if we are fully down, rest assured there will be no available hands to keep the status page updated.

这个评论有点搞笑,或者说有点阴阳了。

重点看 2 个短语:

you can be certain

表示“你完全可以确定/毫无疑问”。 certain 是“确信的”含义。类似的可以用

  • you can be sure
  • you can bet; (更口语)
  • I guarantee
rest assured

这是英语里常用的固定表达,意思是“请放心/尽管安心”。rest = 放松、安心;assured = 得到保证的,有把握的;合起来就是一种“让对方安心”的表达。近似的表达是 don’t worry, 但 rest assured 语气更正式、坚定。

rest assured 例句

  • Rest assured, we are handling the situation.
  • You may rest assured that no data was lost.

下一条评论

It’s wild how non(e) of the big corporations can make a functional status page.

看 2 个单词:

wild

表示“离谱/夸张/不可思议/难以想象”。和 weird 类似, wild 也是口语里常用的词语,其语气既强烈又随意,看下下面的常见用法:

  • That’s wild.
    一个短句,表达“太离谱”的感叹。
  • He wen wild.
    情绪化/夸张的语气,说“他疯了”。
  • The party was wild.
    积极、刺激的语气,“很嗨”的意思。
functional

这里是“起作用的/运转正常的”的意思: Functional equipment works or operates in the way that it is supposed to. 这个单词算是 IT 场景中常见的,如

  • Is the API functional now?
  • functional issues

但口语中,更常用 Is it working now? 这种表达。

好了,评论就看到这里。

Part2:
Cloudflare status page content

点开前面评论提到的 cloudflare status, 我们看到如下内容:

status page screenshot

先来看看标题栏:

DTW (Detroit) on 2025-12-05

这个 DTW 是什么意思?

Detroit 就是底特律,而 DTW 是 Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport 的 IATA (International Air Transport Association)机场代码。原来,Cloudflare, AWS 等全球网络服务商,都用机场代码来代表机房/数据中心。IATA 代码是 3 个字母,可唯一对应世界范围的机场,且能方便查询到,的确很适合这种全球化的 IT 服务商。这还挺有意思的——犹记得我当时在百度时,应该是用的拼音缩写来表示机房位置,如 nj01, bj02 这种,相比起来拼音缩写感觉还是有点歧义的。

再看两个加粗的内容:In progress, Scheduled, 都是表示状态。 In progress 表示“进行中”,Scheduled 表示“已安排,待执行”。这两个词语在项目管理中比较常见;特别的,WIP (Work in Progress) 是描述工作进度的常见缩写。

接着看描述:

Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
重点词
maintenance

“维护”的意思,在 IT 场景极为常用:

  • The server is down for maintenance.
  • The site is currently in maintenance mode.
  • This is a maintenance release focusing on stability.
  • This code has a high maintenance cost. (要开新坑了:)

Maintenance 对项目是很重要的,然而它的价值却往往被轻视了。这和扁鹊治病有点像,维护得好不出问题,体现不出价值;等挂了连夜 on call 修复,往往才体现出功/苦劳来。啊哈,看下一句

We will be performing scheduled maintenance in DTW (Detroit) datacenter on 2025-12-05 between 09:00 and 13:00 UTC.

经典句子,工作汇报肯定会用到类似的,背熟它没毛病。

特别注意这个 will be doing 结构,是将来进行时(Future continuous),这在工作中用得也非常多——比如请假的时候。相比于一般将来时(Simple Future), 这种用法更常用在计划的、持续性活动中,给人一种“预先通知/准备”的感觉,比一般将来时更礼貌、柔和。看看例子:

  • During the meeting, I will be presenting the new project. (安排/告知工作)
  • OOO(out of office) next Friday. I will be attending a family event. (请假解释)

Please make sure you are expecting this traffic to fail over elsewhere during this maintenance window as network interfaces in this datacenter may become temporarily unavailable.

比较典型的长句,as 这里断开,后半句是原因状语从句;可以用 because 来替换 as,但书面中 as 会更加正式一点。

先看一个关键短语:

fail over

它是一个固定短语,也可以直接合起来,即 failover,在 IT 网络运维里比较常用;表示“故障切换/备援切换”,放到原句中连起来就是“请确保你知晓(预期)流量会因故障自动切换到其他地方”。

最后看下单词

temporarily

是“临时地”意思;对应的形容词是 temporary —— 我们常说的“临时文件”、tmp, temp 就对应/来自这个单词。

OK,英语部分就看到这里为止。

从当前页面得知,今天是有 Scheduled Maintenance, 不过 Hacker News 提到的宕机问题,应该与这个无关 —— 毕竟里面说到流量会自动 failover elsewhere. 嗯,看来状态页还真没更新啊?

Part 3:
Best Practices for Status Pages

围绕构建 Status Pages 的主题,我们最后来到 openstatus.dev 的 Best Practices for Status Pages.

文章开篇论述了 Status Page 的重要性,并引出了后续的最佳实践。这段文本写得挺漂亮的,建议全文背诵,工作中用得上。

Status pages are essential tools for communicating service health and incidents to users. They build trust by providing transparency and should be a core component of any software company’s communication strategy. Following a set of best practices ensures your status page is effective and helpful.

这段话可以说 2 个点:

transparency

是“透明性”的意思,看下面的例句:

  • We value transparency in our decision-making process.
  • The company increased financial transparency after the audit.
    公司在审计之后提高了财务透明度。
  • We appreciate your transparency throughout the project.
    我们对你在整个项目中的坦诚和透明表示感谢。
Following... 的句法结构

原句:Following a set of best practices ensures your status page is effective and helpful.

  • Following a set of best practices 是动名词短语(Gerund Phrase)做主语

  • ensues 是谓语,而后面整个是一个宾语从句,省略了 that.
    ensures + 宾语从句省略 that, 是一种常见做法,能让语气更自然。不过注意不是所有动词都可以省略 that, 省略前提是不引入歧义。复杂的咱搞不清,咱先记住类似的 say, think, believe, know, hope 这些动词是可以省略的就行。

回到文章,整体论述后,具体实践部分有 4 大块,这里把每块的关键的信息挑出来:

  1. Maintain Transparency and Honesty

    Be upfront about issues, even minor ones. Hiding problems erodes user trust and can lead to more support requests.

有 2 个重要的单词:

upfront

这里是“坦率的/诚实的”意思;此外常用的意思还有“预付的”/“提前的”

  • I want to be upfront with you — we may miss the deadline.
  • There are no upfront fees — you pay only when you use it.
    没有前期费用——你只在使用时付费。
  • The project demands significant upfront investment.
    这个项目需要大量的前期投资
  • It’s better to settle expectations upfront.
    最好一开始就把预期谈好。
erode

表示“侵蚀/削弱(权威、权利、市场份额等)”,是从物理上的“(岩石/土壤)侵蚀”引申出的。

  • New competitors are eroding their market share.
    新竞争者正在侵蚀他们的市场份额。
  • Once exposed, soil is quickly eroded by wind and rain.
    一旦暴露在外,土壤很快就会被风雨侵蚀。
  • Over time, the river eroded the banks and changed its course.
    随着时间推移,河流侵蚀了河岸并改变了河道。
  1. Automate Where Possible

    Manual updates during an outage are prone to error and can be slow.

2 个关键单词:

outage

“停电、宕机、服务中断”的意思。

  • The service has been restored after a brief outage.
    在一次短暂宕机后,服务已恢复。
  • A sudden outage left the entire building in the dark.
    一次突发停电使整栋楼陷入黑暗。
  • Extended outages can erode user trust.
    长时间的宕机会削弱用户信任。
prone

表示“有……(不好的)倾向;易于……的”;常见搭配就是这里的 be prone to + 名词(e.g. mistakes, failure).

还可以用 -prone 后缀与名词连用构成形容词,如这里的 be prone to error 可以变成 be error-prone.

  • Young children are prone to getting sick in winter.
    小孩子冬天容易生病。
  • The app is prone to crashes on older devices.
    这个应用在老设备上容易崩溃。
  • He’s prone to exaggeration. 他有夸大的习惯。
  1. Provide Detailed Incident Communication

    Examples:

    • Investigating: “We’re currently investigating an issue affecting user logins.”
    • Identified: “We’ve identified the root cause as a database connection issue and are working on a fix.”
    • Monitoring: “A fix has been deployed, and we’re monitoring the system’s performance.”
    • Resolved: “The issue has been resolved, and all services are now operational.”

第 3 点通过例子告诉我们如何来及时同步 incident 给客户。 整理下可能用到的表示状态的词:

word含义
operational正常运行
degraded服务退化,性能下降
investigating事故正在调查中
workaround应急方案,临时解决方法
identified问题已经找到了!
mitigated问题已缓解(但没完全修好)
monitoring一个修复已经部署,正在监控当前状态
resolved指问题已经被解决

  1. Make it Easily Accessible
    • Prominent link: Place a link to your status page in your application’s footer, on your website, and in your support documentation.
    • Custom Domain: Use a simple, memorable URL like status.yourcompany.com.

第 4 点是要让状态页能被轻松找到。重点看下单词

prominent

这里指“显眼的,容易被注意到的”;还有一个意思是“重要的;杰出的;著名的”。

  • The church tower was a prominent feature in the landscape.
    教堂的尖塔曾经是此地景观的重要特色。
  • There was a prominent increase in user traffic last month.
    上个月用户流量出现了明显增长。
  • She was prominent in the fashion industry.
    她曾在时装界名噪一时。
  • He is a prominent figure in the tech industry.
    他是科技行业的知名人物。

好啦,到此这份 Best Practices 就介绍完了。

Status Page 目前基本都是自动检测+人工维护的混合方式。自动检测是实时的,但容易误报,无法细化问题,更无法同步修复情况;所以人工介入是必然的。一般来说,流程大概是后台自动监控 -> 有问题触发预警 -> page on-call, 然后相关人员就不得不开始放下手头的事情(或者没做完的梦 :)来定位问题、拉群、打电话、请示领导、对外同步进展……

Hacker News 上吐槽 Cloudflare status page 状态更新迟了,在业界估计也算正常吧。毕竟影响力这么大的服务,用户肯定第一时间就会发现问题;而公司内部,就算第一时间发现,也还需要走很多流程才能将状态同步到 Status Page 上,延迟是基本无法避免的,就看延迟多久了。

2. END

好了,所有内容到此结束。本期算是围绕 Status Page 这个主题, 学习了口语和书面的一些表达方法,希望对你有所帮助吧。

如果你需要本文全部的英语内容做口语练习,就点第二条内容吧。

下期再见。

注1:本内容大量使用了 LLM、Collins/OALD 等资源。致谢。内容大概率有疏漏和错误,还请专业人士多多修正补充吧。

注2:第 0 期内容有点太多了,对此表示深刻歉意!

3. Appendix: 英语材料(文本)

Cloudflare Down Again (Headline style, linking-verb is omitted)

Cloudflare is down again.

Cloudflare went down again.


Yes. Weird that https://www.cloudflarestatus.com/ isn’t reporting this properly. It should be full of red blinking lights.

  • weird: If you describe something or someone as weird, you mean that they are strange.

Yeah. I only work for a small company, but you can be certain we will not update the status page if only a small portion of customers are affected, and if we are fully down, rest assured there will be no available hands to keep the status page updated.

  • you can be certain: A strong way to say “you can be sure”, emphasizing confidence or guarantee about something.

    If she promised to help, you can be certain she will follow through.

    “Are you joining us for dinner?” — “You can bet.” (you can bet - casual)

  • rest assured: A formal or reassuring way to say “be confident,” “don’t worry,” or “you can be sure.”

    Rest assured, we are handling the situation.

    You may rest assured that no data was lost


It’s wild how none of the big corporations can make a functional status page.

  • wild: Informal use to express amazement. Crazy / surprising / exciting

    That’s wild.

    He wen wild.

    The party was wild.

  • functional: Something that works well and serves its purpose.

    Is the API functional now?

    The software has several functional improvements in this update.


Cloudflare uses airport codes to represent its edge data centers/PoPs (Points of Presence).


Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.

  • maintenance: The act of keeping something in good condition – often refers to equipment, machinery, buildings, or systems.

    The server is down for maintenance.

    The site is currently in maintenance mode.

    This is a maintenance release focusing on stability.

    This code has a high maintenance cost.


We will be performing scheduled maintenance in DTW datacenter on 2025-12-05 between 09:00 and 13:00 UTC.

  • Future continuous: will be doing

    During the meeting, I will be presenting the new project.

    OOO next Friday. I will be attending a family event.


Please make sure you are expecting this traffic to fail over elsewhere during this maintenance window as network interfaces in this datacenter may become temporarily unavailable.


Status pages are essential tools for communicating service health and incidents to users. They build trust by providing transparency and should be a core component of any software company’s communication strategy. Following a set of best practices ensures your status page is effective and helpful.

  • transparency: The quality of being open, clear, and honest

    We value transparency in our decision-making process.

    The company increased financial transparency after the audit.

    We appreciate your transparency throughout the project.


Maintain Transparency and Honesty

Be upfront about issues, even minor ones. Hiding problems erodes user trust and can lead to more support requests.

  • upfront: Honest and direct – describing someone who communicates clearly and openly; Paid or done in advance – often used in financial contexts; Positioned at the front – less common, literal meaning.

    I want to be upfront with you — we may miss the deadline.

    There are no upfront fees — you pay only when you use it.

    The project demands significant upfront investment.

    It’s better to settle expectations upfront.

  • erode: To gradually wear away or destroy something – often used literally for physical things like soil, rock, or materials; To weaken or gradually reduce something abstract – such as confidence, trust, or authority.

    New competitors are eroding their market share.

    Once exposed, soil is quickly eroded by wind and rain

    Over time, the river eroded the banks and changed its course.


Automate Where Possible

Manual updates during an outage are prone to error and can be slow.

  • outage: A period when a service or system is not working – often used for electricity, internet, or other utilities; A temporary interruption or failure – can also refer to any system, service, or operation being unavailable.

    The service has been restored after a brief outage.

    A sudden outage left the entire building in the dark.

    Extended outages can erode user trust.

  • prone: Likely to experience something, usually negative – often used to describe a tendency or susceptibility.

    Young children are prone to getting sick in winter.

    The app is prone to crashes on older devices.

    He’s prone to exaggeration.


Provide Detailed Incident Communication

Investigating: “We’re currently investigating an issue affecting user logins.”

Identified: “We’ve identified the root cause as a database connection issue and are working on a fix.”

Monitoring: “A fix has been deployed, and we’re monitoring the system’s performance.”

Resolved: “The issue has been resolved, and all services are now operational.”


Make it Easily Accessible

Prominent link: Place a link to your status page in your application’s footer, on your website, and in your support documentation.

Custom Domain: Use a simple, memorable URL like status.yourcompany.com.

  • prominent: Easily noticeable or standing out – often used for objects, features, or qualities; Important, well-known, or famous – often used for people, organizations, or ideas.

    The church tower was a prominent feature in the landscape.

    There was a prominent increase in user traffic last month.

    She was prominent in the fashion industry.

    He is a prominent figure in the tech industry.

CC BY-SA 4.0