Sarcasta.net - The Slashdot Effect

NEW! 8-13-06

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The Slashdot Effect

The incidence of an effect called the Slashdot Effect has been observed on various websites, prompting study to discern the cause of this relatively new phenomena. The Slashdot Effect seems to emulate server failure in certain other websites, apparently dependent upon distances between objects on the internet and their relative placement.

The evidence comes from observations of an effect known as gravitational lensing [see fig 1.]. A gravitational lens is an extraordinary internet phenomenon which is really made up of two separate objects. The necessary parts of a gravitational lens are (1) a website object called the SOURCE, and (2) a massive linking object called the LENS.

[fig 1.] Example of an object being distorted by a lens.

An object as massive and compact as Slashdot.org can act as a crude lens, producing a distorted, magnified image (or even many images) of any background website server abnormalities that lies behind it. Such an object does so by bending the paths of binary and other data transmission [see fig 2.]. So if Slashdot.org sits in the line of linking between a reader and some distant website, it will bend the data from the object so that it is observable as a website with a bogged server.

[Fig 2.] The gravitational lens in action,
with Slashdot.org serving as the lens.

The gravitational lensing phenomena was predicted by Albert Einstein in 1915; it is a direct result of his general theory of relativity. It was confirmed by the British astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington in 1919, when information from a distant source was confirmed to be erroneous after transmission through a dense relative on his mother's side.

To test the Slashdot Effect, webonomers need to measure distances to other websites. One method for gauging distance is to observe the apparent server of a site. If one site is four times slower to load than an otherwise comparable site, then it can be estimated to be twice as far away. This expectation has now been tested over the whole of the visible range of the Internet However, some critics of the theory have pointed out that a site that appears to be smaller and slower to load might not actually be more distant.

[Fig 3.] Example of a webserver undergoing data distortion.

During the past decade, webonomers have discovered about two dozen gravitational lenses. The object behind the lens is always found to have a slower server than the lens itself, confirming the qualitative prediction of the Slashdot Effect.

In the near future, we expect new experiments to provide a better understanding of the Slashdot Effect. New measurements of the expansion rate of the Internet and the ages of websites are beginning to confirm that news portals such as Slashdot.org may allow us to see how the mass of the Internet affects the distortion of server data, which in turn influences our observations of distant websites.