# Evergreen: The Big Ball of Mud

DevFeed: [Evergreen: The Big Ball of Mud](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/evergreen-the-big-ball-of-mud-11303.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.ipspace.net/2025/12/worth-reading-big-ball-mud/>)

Published: 2025-12-10T07:07:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [ipSpace.net blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/ipspace-net-blog.md>)

Topics: [Networks](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/networks.md>)

Tags: [architecture](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/architecture.md>), [blog](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/blog.md>), [blog-post](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/blog-post.md>), [networks](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/networks.md>), [worth-reading](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/worth-reading.md>)

## AI overview

The article revisits the "Big Ball of Mud" concept from a 1997 paper and a 2007 blog post, arguing that the described pathological architectures still apply to real-world organically grown networks.

## Source excerpt

In 2007, Jeff Atwood published a legendary blog post summarizing a 1997 paper by Brian Foote and Joseph Yoder. Reading that blog post (or the original paper), the inevitable conclusion is that we haven't made much progress in the last 20 years. Even worse, almost every single pathological architecture described in that blog post applies quite well to real-life organically grown networks. Keep reading