The Slashdot effect is the term given to the phenomenon of a popular website linking to a smaller site, causing the smaller site to slow down or even temporarily close due to the increased traffic. The name stems from the huge influx of web traffic that results from the technology news site Slashdot linking to underpowered websites. However, it has been used to describe the same effect when generated by other websites or metablogs such as Fark and Digg, leading to terms such as the Digg effect or the link becoming Farked. Typically, less robust sites are unable to cope with the huge increase in traffic and become unavailable – common causes are lack of sufficient bandwidth, servers that fail to cope with the high number of requests, and traffic quotas. Sites that are maintained on shared hosting services often fail when confronted with the Slashdot effect.
Links from other popular websites can cause problems comparable to this effect – see traffic overload.

Main article
CmdrTaco
CowboyNeal
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Slashdot effect
Slash
Geeks in Space Extent
When the targeted website has a community-based structure, the term can also refer to the secondary effect of having a large group of new users suddenly set up accounts and start to participate in the community. While in some cases this has been considered a good thing, in others it is viewed with disdain by the prior members, as quite often the sheer number of new people brings many of the unwanted aspects of Slashdot along with it, such as trolling, vandalism, and newbie-like behavior.

Assistance and prevention
Here, the site delivering the links is something other than Slashdot.

Digg effect or Dugg: the same effect referred to by users of Digg.
Farked or Fbxrd: the same effect referred to by users of Fark.com.
Kuroded (pronounced 'corroded'): the same effect referred to by users of Kuro5hin.org. Doesn't often happen.
Goon Rush: the same effect referred to by users of SomethingAwful.com.
MeFried: the same effect referred to by users of MetaFilter.
Wanged: the same effect when caused by the webcomic Penny Arcade.
qwantzed: same effect when sent by Dinosaur Comics