In 2002, approximately 50% of Slashdot's traffic consisted of people who simply check out the headlines and click through, while others participate in discussion boards and take part in the community. Many links in Slashdot stories caused the linked site to get swamped by heavy traffic and its server to collapse. This was known as the "Slashdot effect", a term first coined on February 15, 1999, that refers to an article about a "new generation of niche Web portals driving unprecedented amounts of traffic to sites of interest".
In 2002 approximately 50% of Slashdot's traffic consisted of people who simply check out the headlines and click through while others participate in discussion boards and take part in the community Many links in Slashdot stories caused the linked site to get swamped by heavy traffic and its server to collapse This was known as the "Slashdot effect" a term first coined on February 15 1999 that refers to an article about a "new generation of niche Web portals driving unprecedented amounts of traffic to sites of interest"