This is the third article in a three part series where I discuss the relevance of the term “website” effect. Here are the first and second articles. When I discuss the term Reddit effect I am referring to the situation where a website, link, image, or article shows up on the front page of Reddit, gets a lot of views, and then goes down because of too much traffic.

I have been a visitor Reddit for a couple of years and I made an account not too long ago. I have seen this happen on a regular basis even nowadays. So the quick answer to the question posed in the title is, yes, the Reddit effect is still relevant. Now, why is the Reddit effect still relevant while the Slashdot effect and the Digg effect are not?

One reason could be the crowd rules in Reddit. There have been no rumors that I have seen that suggest that anyone other then the Reddit users are responsible for what makes it to the front page. Another reason could be the site is still small and niche oriented but still commands a large enough user base to take down small sites. A final reason could be that the people who submit to Reddit can get their news from elsewhere and focus on making the Reddit front page a place to find unique and interesting links, but ones that are not necessarily popular at the moment.

I personally think all of these reasons are true and I think the idea of the entire Internet going to one site all at the same time and taking it down (because of bandwidth and server limits) because they are genuinely interested in the content is really cool.