Slashdotted

Slashdotted
When the 10th issue of symmetry magazine came out on October 12, the magazine's Web server crashed unexpectedly. Looking at the Web traffic statistics, the reason became obvious: symmetry had been "slashdotted."

Well-known to tech-savvy Web users, slashdot.org highlights sites of interest around the Web, leading tens of thousands of devoted readers to check out its recommendations. Bombarded like this, Web servers regularly crash: the "/. phenomen." And so, when the front page of slashdot featured a link to symmetry's gallery of particle physics art from the issue, the server couldn't initially handle the resulting demand; it was set to only accept 175 simultaneous connections, usually more than enough. Within minutes, the Web server was reconfigured and ready to handle the flow of readers from slashdot. And flow they did.

The chart shows the number of visitors per day through the start of October. It peaks at nearly 30,000 on October 12, with another 20,000 visitors on the following day. Traffic has dropped off since the story left slashdot's front page, but residual traffic is still higher than earlier in the month.

If there is any good reason for a Web server to crash, it is because of sudden great interest. For the symmetry team, it was a welcome way to celebrate one year of publishing the magazine.
David Harris

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