“The Slashdot / Digg Effect” (or Nobody Goes There Anymore It’s Too Crowded)

This is a phenomenon that is really starting to bum me out. I will quickly explain what it is.

Sites like Slashdot.org and Digg.com are basically places that say “Hey, check out this cool thing on the web!” Millions of people visit these two sites and in turn jump to what ever is the latest “cool thing on the web.” Unfortunately, the site where this “cool thing” lives is rarely ready for the onslaught of visitors and almost without fail the site will quickly use up its allocated bandwidth or just plain “crash” under the strain. The sites that cause this phenomenon proudly dub it the “(insert culprit here) effect.”

I used to think it was kinda cool. I was impressed that this site I use to find neat stuff has so much power. Nowadays I find that it’s rare that I can even investigate the top 3 stories on Digg because they are either dead or so bogged down that the load times are waaaay to long for my patience.

I am just telling you about this because it bugs me. And because it is an interesting problem which I am curious to see how and if it will be remedied. You may also now understand why when your pal says, “hey check out the cool video at such and such link” that link doesn’t work for you. There’s a good chance it’s had its back broken by the scrillions that got there before you.

Yes, scrillions.