Slashdot effect: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Increase in traffic caused by links}}

{{Redirect|Flash crowd|the short story by Larry Niven|Flash Crowd|the social gathering in the real world|flash mob}}

The '''Slashdot effect''', also known as '''slashdotting''', or the '''hug of death''' occurs when a popular [[website]] links to a smaller sitewebsite, causing a massive increase in traffic. This [[Web traffic#Traffic overload|overloads]] the smaller site, causing it to slow down or even temporarily become unavailable. TheTypically, nameless stemsrobust fromsites are unable to cope with the huge influxincrease of [[webin traffic]] thatand wouldbecome resultunavailable from&ndash; thecommon technologycauses newsare sitelack of sufficient ''[[Slashdotdata bandwidth]]'', linking[[Server to(computing)|servers]] websites.that Howeverfail theto namecope iswith somewhatthe datedhigh asnumber flashof crowdsrequests, fromand ''Slashdot''traffic were[[Disk reportedquota|quota]]s. toSites bethat diminishingare asmaintained of 2005 due to competition fromon [[Newsshared aggregator|similar siteshosting]].<ref name="BWservices Lessoften impact"/>fail Thewhen effectconfronted haswith beenthe associatedSlashdot witheffect. otherThis websiteshas orthe metablogssame sucheffect as a [[Fark]],denial-of-service [[Diggattack]], ''[[Drudgealbeit Report]]'',accidentally. [[Imgur]],The [[Reddit]],name andstems from the huge influx of [[Twitterweb traffic]], leadingwhich towould termsresult suchfrom asthe beingtechnology '''Farked'''news orsite ''[[Slashdot]]'Drudged''', beinglinking underto thewebsites. '''RedditThe effect''', or receiving aterm "'''hugflash of deathcrowd'''" fromis thea sitemore ingeneric questionterm.<ref name="TNW Reddit effect">{{cite web |lastfirst1=Wilhelm Ismail |firstlast1=AlexAri |titlefirst2=HowBo Reddit|last2=Hong turned|first3=Ethan oneL. congressional candidate’s campaign upside down|urllast3=http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2012/01/17/how-reddit-turned-one-congressional-candidates-campaign-upside-down/Miller |publisherfirst4=TheScott NextA. Web|accessdatelast4=24Brandt October 2012|datefirst5=17Darrell JanuaryD. 2012}}</ref><ref>{{citeE. web|titlelast5=TheLong Reddit| effect|url = http://blogswww.abcssrc.netucsc.auedu/newseditorsPapers/2012/08/theari-reddit-effectmascots03.htmlpdf |publisher title =ABC NewsManaging Flash Crowds on the Internet |accessdate=24 Octoberpublisher 2012|date=August 31,University 2012}}</ref>of [[GoogleCalifornia Doodle]]s,Santa whichCruz linkStorage toSystems searchResearch resultsCenter on| thedate doodle= topic,October also2003 result| inaccess-date high= increases15 ofMarch traffic2010 from| thearchive-date search= results9 page.<refMay name="hwangcnn">Williams,2013 David| E.archive-url "[http= https://wwwweb.cnnarchive.comorg/2006web/TECH20130509180859/internethttp:/07/19/googlewww.logo/indexssrc.html Google's unknown artist has huge following]ucsc." ''[[CNN]]edu/Papers/ari-mascots03.''pdf July| 19,url-status 2006.= Retrieveddead on July 19, 2006.}}</ref> Typically, less robust sites are unable to cope with the huge increase in traffic and become unavailable &ndash; common causes are lack of sufficient [[data bandwidth]], [[Server (computing)|servers]] that fail to cope with the high number of requests, and traffic [[Disk quota|quota]]s. Sites that are maintained on [[shared hosting]] services often fail when confronted with the Slashdot effect.

The original circumstances have changed, as flash crowds from ''Slashdot'' were reported in 2005 to be diminishing due to competition from [[News aggregator|similar sites]],<ref name="BW Less impact"/> and the general adoption of elastically scalable cloud hosting platforms.

A '''flash crowd''' is a more generic term without using any specific name that describes a network phenomenon where a network or host suddenly receives a lot of traffic. This is sometimes due to the appearance of a website on a blog or news column.<ref>{{cite web

|author=Ismail Ari, Bo Hong, Ethan L. Miller, Scott A. Brandt, Darrell and D. E. Long

|url=http://www.ssrc.ucsc.edu/Papers/ari-mascots03.pdf

|title=Managing Flash Crowds on the Internet

|publisher=University of California Santa Cruz Storage Systems Research Center

|date=October 2003

|accessdate=15 March 2010

}}</ref><ref>{{cite web

|author=Chenyu Pan

|author2=Merdan Atajanov |author3=Mohammad Belayet Hossain |author4=Toshihiko Shimokawa |author5=Norihiko Yoshida

|url=http://www.ny57.org/pub/ieice06p.pdf

|title=FCAN: Flash Crowds Alleviation Network Using Adaptive P2P Overlay of Cash Proxies

|publisher=The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers

|date=April 2006

|accessdate=15 March 2010

|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20100202075644/http://www.ny57.org/pub/ieice06p.pdf

|archivedate=2 February 2010

}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Flash Crowd Mitigation via Adaptive Admission Control Based on Application-Level Observations|url=http://www.cs.uccs.edu/~zbo/teaching/CS522/Projects/FlashCrowds-SessionAdmissionControl-TIT05.pdf|publisher=University of Colorado Colorado Springs College of Engineering & Applied Science|accessdate=25 May 2012|author=Xuan Chen|author2=John Heidemann |date=July 2004}}</ref>

== Terminology ==

According to the [[Jargon File]], theThe term "Slashdot effect" refers to the phenomenon of a website becoming virtually unreachable because too many people are hitting it after the site was mentioned in an interesting article on the popular Slashdot news service. It was later extended to describe any similar effect from being listed on a popular site, similar to the more generic term, flash crowd, which is a more appropriate term.<ref>{{cite web|title=slashdot effect|url=http://catb.org/jargon/html/S/slashdot-effect.html|work=The Jargon File, version 4.4.8|author=Eric S. Raymond|accessdateaccess-date=21 May 2012}}</ref>

The effect has been associated with other websites or metablogs such as [[Fark]], [[Digg]], ''[[Drudge Report]]'', [[Imgur]], [[Reddit]], and [[Twitter]], leading to terms such as being ''farked'' or ''drudged'', being under the ''Reddit effect'', or receiving a ''hug of death'' from the site in question.<ref name="TNW Reddit effect">{{cite web|last=Wilhelm|first=Alex|title=How Reddit turned one congressional candidate's campaign upside down|url=https://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2012/01/17/how-reddit-turned-one-congressional-candidates-campaign-upside-down/|publisher=The Next Web|access-date=24 October 2012|date=17 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The Reddit effect|url=http://blogs.abc.net.au/newseditors/2012/08/the-reddit-effect.html|publisher=ABC News|access-date=24 October 2012|date=August 31, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141101224936/http://blogs.abc.net.au/newseditors/2012/08/the-reddit-effect.html|archive-date=1 November 2014}}</ref> Another generic term, "flash crowd,"<ref>{{cite web|title=flash crowd|url=http://catb.org/jargon/html/F/flash-crowd.html|publisher=The Jargon File (version 4.4.7)|access-date=25 May 2012|author=Eric S. Raymond}}</ref> originates from [[Larry Niven|Larry Niven's]] [[Flash Crowd|1973 novella by that name]], in which the invention of inexpensive [[teleportation]] allows crowds to materialize almost instantly at the sites of interesting news stories.

The term "flash crowd" was coined in 1973 by Larry Niven in his science fiction short story, ''[[Flash Crowd]]''. It predicted that a consequence of inexpensive [[teleportation]] would be huge crowds materializing almost instantly at the sites of interesting news stories. Twenty years later, the term became commonly used on the Internet to describe exponential spikes in website or server usage when it passes a certain threshold of popular interest. This effect was anticipated years earlier in 1956 in Alfred Bester's novel ''[[The Stars My Destination]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=flash crowd|url=http://catb.org/jargon/html/F/flash-crowd.html|publisher=The Jargon File (version 4.4.7)|accessdate=25 May 2012|author=Eric S. Raymond}}</ref>

== Cause ==

The ''Reddit effect'' has also been used to describe viral [[crowd funding|crowd fundraising]] efforts in addition to the surge in web traffic.<ref name="TNW Reddit effect"/>

==Cause==

Sites such as ''Slashdot'', Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon and Fark consist of brief submitted stories and a self-moderated discussion on each story. The typical submission introduces a news item or website of interest by [[hyperlink|linking]] to it. In response, large masses of readers tend to simultaneously rush to view the referenced sites. The ensuing flood of page requests from readers can exceed the site's available bandwidth or the ability of its servers to respond, and render the site temporarily unreachable.

[[Google Doodle]]s, which link to search results on the doodle topic, also result in high increases of traffic from the search results page.<ref name="hwangcnn">Williams, David E. "[http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/07/19/google.logo/index.html Google's unknown artist has huge following]." ''[[CNN]].'' July 19, 2006. Retrieved on July 19, 2006.</ref>

==Extent==

[[File:SlashdotEffectGraph.svg|thumb|right|[[MRTG]] Graph from a web server statistics generator showing a moderate ''Slashdot'' effect in action in 2005]]

== Extent ==

[[File:SlashdotEffectGraph.svg|thumb|right|[[MRTG]] Graphgraph from a web server statistics generator showing a moderate ''Slashdot'' effect in action in 2005]]

Major news sites or corporate websites are typically engineered to serve large numbers of requests and therefore do not normally exhibit this effect. Websites that fall victim may be hosted on home servers, offer large images or movie files or have inefficiently generated dynamic content (e.g. many database hits for every web hit even if all web hits are requesting the same page). These websites often became unavailable within a few minutes of a story's appearance, even before any comments had been posted. Occasionally, paying ''Slashdot'' subscribers (who have access to stories before non-paying users) rendered a site unavailable even before the story was posted for the general readership.

Few definitive numbers exist regarding the precise magnitude of the ''Slashdot'' effect, but estimates put the peak of the mass influx of page requests at anywhere from several hundred to several thousand hits per minute.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Slashdot Effect: An Analysis of Three Internet Publications|url=http://ssadler.phy.bnl.gov/adler/SDE/SlashDotEffect.html|accessdateaccess-date=19 April 2003|author=Stephen Adler|archiveurlarchive-url=httphttps://web.archive.org/web/20081202171653/http://ssadler.phy.bnl.gov/adler/SDE/SlashDotEffect.html|archivedatearchive-date=2 December 2008}} [http://hup.hu/old/stuff/slashdotted/SlashDotEffect.html (mirror)]</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Slashdotting graphs|url=http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~mjuric/universe/slashdotting/|publisher=Princeton University Department of Astrophysical Sciences|accessdateaccess-date=13 January 2004|archiveurlarchive-url=httphttps://web.archive.org/web/20090227001212/http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~mjuric/universe/slashdotting/|archivedatearchive-date=27 February 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Ruins in ASCII|url=http://ascii.pdp10.org/images.shtml#slashdotted|accessdateaccess-date=27 September 2004|author=Aaron Benoy}}</ref> The flood usually peaked when the article was at the top of the site's front page and gradually subsided as the story was superseded by newer items. Traffic usually remained at elevated levels until the article was pushed off the front page, which could take from 12 to 18 hours after its initial posting. However, some articles had significantly longer lifetimes due to the popularity, newsworthiness, or interest in the linked article.

By 2005, reporters were commenting that the ''Slashdot'' effect had been diminishing.<ref name="BW Less impact">{{cite news |first=Olga |last=Kharif , [|url=http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2005/tc2005032_0932_tc119.htm |title=Less Impact from the "Slashdot Effect"], |work=Bloomberg Business Week, |date=March 2, 2005 |archive-date=May 15, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050515014743/http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2005/tc2005032_0932_tc119.htm }}</ref> However, the effect has been seen involving Twitter when some popular users mention a website.<ref>Paul Douglas, [http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/how-stephen-fry-takes-down-entire-websites-with-a-single-tweet-674170 How Stephen Fry takes down entire websites with a single tweet], Tech Radar, March 3, 2010</ref>

===Communities===

When the targeted website has a [[internet community|community]]-based structure, the term can also refer to the secondary effect of having a large group of new users suddenly set up accounts and start to participate in the community. While in some cases this has been considered a good thing, in others it is viewed with disdain by the prior members, as quite often the sheer number of new people brings many of the unwanted aspects of ''Slashdot'' along with it, such as [[Internet troll|trolling]], [[vandalism]], and [[newbie]]-like behavior. This bears some similarity to the 1990s Usenet concept of [[Eternal September]].

== Assistance and prevention ==

Many solutions have been proposed for sites to deal with the Slashdot effect.<ref>{{ citation | url = http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/75287/flashcrowds-camera-ready.pdf | title = Handling Flash Crowds from your Garage | author1 = Jeremy Elson | author2 = Jon Howell | publisher = [[Microsoft Research]] | year = 2008 }}</ref>

There are several systems that automatically mirror any Slashdot-linked pages to ensure that the content remains available even if the original site becomes unresponsive.<ref>{{ cite web | url = http://archive.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2004/10/65165 | title = Solution for Slashdot Effect? | author = Daniel Terdiman | date = 1 October 2004 | publisher = WIRED | access-date = 2016-04-18 }}</ref> Sites in the process of being Slashdotted may be able to mitigate the effect by temporarily redirecting requests for the targeted pages to one of these mirrors. Slashdot does not [[mirror website|mirror]] the sites it links to on its own servers, nor does it endorse a third party solution. Mirroring of content may constitute a breach of [[copyright]] and, in many cases, cause ad revenue to be lost for the targeted site.

Many solutions have been proposed for sites to deal with the Slashdot effect.<ref>{{citation

|url = http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/75287/flashcrowds-camera-ready.pdf

|title = Handling Flash Crowds from your Garage

|author1 = Jeremy Elson

|author2 = Jon Howell

|publisher = [[Microsoft Research]]

|year = 2008

}} – A research paper describing strategies for handling flash crowds</ref>

== See also ==

There are several systems that automatically mirror any Slashdot-linked pages to ensure that the content remains available even if the original site becomes unresponsive.<ref>{{cite web

|url = http://archive.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2004/10/65165

|title = Solution for Slashdot Effect?

|author = Daniel Terdiman

|date = 1 October 2004

|publisher = WIRED

|accessdate = 2016-04-18

}}</ref> Sites in the process of being Slashdotted may be able to mitigate the effect by temporarily redirecting requests for the targeted pages to one of these mirrors. Slashdot does not [[mirror website|mirror]] the sites it links to on its own servers, nor does it endorse a third party solution. Mirroring of content may constitute a breach of [[copyright]] and, in many cases, cause ad revenue to be lost for the targeted site.

==See also==

* [[Denial-of-service attack]]

* [[Streisand effect]]

* [[Web traffic]]

* [[Reddit#Reddit effect|Reddit effect]]

== References ==

==Notes and references==

{{reflist|2}}

{{refs}}

==External links==

* [http://slashdot.org/ Slashdot]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slashdot effect}}

[[Category:Internet terminology]]

[[Category:Slashdot]]

[[Category:Denial-of-service attacks]]

[[Category:Computer networking]]

[[Category:1970s neologisms]] <!-- for "flash crowd", which is also defined here -->

[[Category:Words coined in the 1990s]]

[[Category:Web 2.0 neologisms]]