# The SDMB has been /. 'ed! **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [January 7, 2003, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146 "2003-01-07T15:04:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![critter42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@critter42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/critter42)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/1 "2003-01-07T15:04:54Z")
I’m posting this here to let you know that the board is very slow today, and there is a good reason. This board is currently being “slashdotted”. For those unfamiliar with the term, [slashdot.org](http://slashdot.org) is a technology-oriented newsboard with hundreds of thousands, if not millions of devotees. When they post a newstory that contains a link to another website, that website gets bombarded with thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of hits with in a short period of time (we’re talking less than an hour after the story is posted). This much traffic will more often than not bring said server to a screeching halt. I don’t have the link, but the story posted was the Cafe Society thread about the rewrites of the LotR in different styles. critter42 ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/2 "2003-01-07T15:37:02Z")
Link to the slashdot story: [http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/07/0251242&mode=nested&tid=97](http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/07/0251242&mode=nested&tid=97) We haven’t been hammered completely into oblivion. I’m actually quite impressed. ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/3 "2003-01-07T15:57:01Z")
Ah, that explains it. Almost painfully stereotypical. I believe you Americans say _Links don’t kill hamsters. Fanboys kill hamsters._ ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/4 "2003-01-07T17:24:01Z")
That thread is on the loose, and that loose thread now has 114,000 views. It must be killed… ---
**Author:** ![jdavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@jdavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jdavis)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/5 "2003-01-07T18:09:28Z")
I’ve just saw that we were serving more than double our all time previous high of “current users” (that is the number of “people” active on the message board in the last 15 minute period). We just did 1626. I now have a pretty good idea what our maximum limit is. Most excellent! Jerry ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/6 "2003-01-07T19:41:01Z")
Is it a DOS attack or just curiousity seekers? If it’s this bad in the middle of the day when most people are working, it’s going to awful tonight when more people are online. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/7 "2003-01-07T20:14:56Z")
It’s not a Denial of Service attack. It’s just a lot of people who want to read one of our threads. ---
**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/8 "2003-01-07T20:37:05Z")
I feel stupid for being impressed by the viewcount boost of threadspotted threads. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by jdavis_ > **Most excellent!** That doesn’t look right if you don’t surround it with [Mr.Burns]…[/Mr.Burns] or at least add some thunder and maniacal laughter. 😃 From the Jargon File’s definition of the [slashdot effect](http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/slashdot-effect.html): > [@](#): > > Differs from a DoS attack in being unintentional. ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/9 "2003-01-07T23:02:26Z")
maybe some of them will stick around, give us money, buy all the mods cars, give Jerry a castle… ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/10 "2003-01-08T00:43:48Z")
It’ll only get worse - now the link is being posted to e-mail lists, like the sci-fi one where I just got it. Ugh. Then again, in the internet world, anything that lasts more than a day is positively Neanderthal. 😃 Esprix ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/11 "2003-01-08T04:34:39Z")
If these appear to last long periods of time would it be benificial in the end to stop threadspotting or is it a large addition to the “recrutment” of new members? ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/12 "2003-01-08T05:58:04Z")
I don’t know about here, but at [off-topic.net](http://off-topic.net) (a board my friend moderates), they had a thread mentioned on Opie and Anthony, and ended up with about 300,000 hits in a short time. They had to turn off guest viewing temporarily. Is that something the staff is considering here, or would that be counter-productive to the mission of bringing in readers to the column? ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/13 "2003-01-08T11:19:54Z")
Well, Jerry? It’s over! So, what was it like, being the target of the /. effect? The hamsters kept running in their cages. Weighed down, but it wasn’t really any worse than the same time last year, before the hamsters got new chow. How’d you keep us going? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/14 "2003-01-08T13:22:34Z")
I’ll be more amazed if pieces of that thread don’t start showing up as glurge anytime now. You just remember you heard it here first, children. ---
**Author:** ![Rue\_DeDay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/41988e/32.png) [@Rue\_DeDay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rue_DeDay)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/15 "2003-01-08T13:44:56Z")
So THAT’S what happened. And you kept the hamsters in their wheels **Jerry**? You utterly kick some serious ass, sir. -Rue. (one impressed puppy) ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/16 "2003-01-08T15:11:58Z")
I am totally impressed that these boards held up against that…people over at Slashdot seem quite proud of being able to bring a server to a standstill! One thing that bothers me, though, is that my SO was reading the Slashdot thread about the LoTR rewrites, and someone cut and pasted in a bunch of the “better” ones, and didn’t give credit to a single poster! I suppose it isn’t that big of a deal, but it is a little disrespectful, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/17 "2003-01-08T16:29:58Z")
The SDMB has successfully weathered the slashdot effect. The hamster is bloody but unbowed. Hail Jerry! ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/18 "2003-01-08T16:42:05Z")
As of this moment I see 336 members and 530 guests online (most of whom are viewing the LOTR thread). So we still have quite a bit of traffic but no real bottlenecks. Yay! I’m gonna go move a thread in celebration. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/19 "2003-01-08T16:43:30Z")
Since the effect was temporary - today the board seems OK again - I don’t think we need to make any permanent changes such as have been suggested in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Mars\_Horizon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mars_horizon/32/2804_2.png) [@Mars\_Horizon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mars_Horizon)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146/20 "2003-01-08T16:55:27Z")
I saw a lot of posters in that thread with only one post to their name and a registration date of Jan 2003 - I wonder how many new members we gained in the last 24 hours? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-has-been-ed/147146.md?page=2)