This will be the first in a three part series where I discuss the relevance of the term “website” effect. When I speak about the Slashdot effect I’m talking about the situation that happens when a small website that doesn’t receive very many views per day is suddenly inundated with traffic directed from the front page of Slashdot. I’ve seen this mentioned on Slashdot, Digg, and Reddit.

I have been a Slashdot reader for a while and recently there have been very few times where I was unable to access a website due to the Slashdot effect. This could be due to a few reasons. One possible reason is hosting plans are getting better. Another reason could be that now only popular websites regularly make it to the front page of Slashdot. A final reason could be that the editors are planning ahead and promoting websites to the front page that have a possibility of staying up during the Slashdot effect.

The first reason is probably not the case. Cheap hosting plans generally have not gotten any faster or better at handling a Slashdotting and they continue to serve their purpose of giving companies and individuals a low cost web presence. The second and third reasons are probably true in most cases.

The straight answer to the question that was posed in the title is no, I do not believe that the Slashdot effect is still relevant because the content that shows up on Slashdot is usually available. I haven’t had to hunt around for a mirror.