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2003/02/05

This item ran on the Joel on Software homepage on Wednesday, February 05, 2003

Dave asks: "When I get Slashdotted we get about 5000 reads. I've noticed that number is about what some Manila and Radio sites have gotten when they were Slashdotted. Now, according to Joel Spolsky he gets about 400,000 reads from a Slashdot link, about 80 times the flow. Now here's the question. Why?"

Actually, I said 500,000, not 400,000, and I was referring to hits, not "reads." I'm not sure what a read is, but a hit is a single file served by the web server. Even the simplest page on this site consists of four files: the header GIF, the Made with CityDesk GIF, the CityDesk logo, and the article itself. Articles with pictures have a lot more. The number of page views we get, which only counts HTML files, is about 120,000 on "slashdot days." Since the average day has about 30,000 page views, only 90,000 are "extra." Still a lot more than Manila sites, but not 80 times the flow.

Another difference is that I almost always get slashdotted on a day when I release a new article. This is coincidentally the same day I send email to 16,000 subscribers telling them about the new article. And on average a few dozen webloggers will link to me on the same day, bringing in their traffic as well.

Some percentage of those people say, "Aha! This precisely proves my point!" and forward the URL to their boss or underling to hit them over the head with it. "See? Nya!" So there's always a multiplier effect.

Finally, Joel on Software has enough old content that many new visitors stay a while and click around. That accounts for a lot of the extra traffic on Slashdot days.

My new book is here! Apress has just published a new collection of 36 essays from Joel on Software, aptly named More Joel on Software. Get yours today! Available from Amazon.com or wherever fine cheese is sold.

About the Author: I’m your host, Joel Spolsky, a software developer in New York City. Since 2000, I've been writing about software development, management, business, and the Internet on this site. For my day job, I run Fog Creek Software, makers of FogBugz—the smart bug tracking software with the stupid name, and Fog Creek Copilot—the easiest way to provide remote tech support over the Internet, with nothing to install or configure.

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I'm your host, Joel Spolsky, a software developer in New York City. Since 2000, I've been writing about software development, management, business, and the Internet on this site. More about me.

There's a complete archive of everything going back to 2000. The home page is reserved for minor, ephemeral thoughts, but occasionally I write a longer article. You can sign up to receive email whenever this happens at the bottom of this page. We also have one of those RSS thingamajiggies. If you don't know what that is, consider yourself lucky.

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Want to hire great developers? Looking for a job that doesn't suck? Over 200,000 great programmers read my job board at jobs.joelonsoftware.com.

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You can also email me directly, although my mailbox is an official disaster area.

For my day job, I'm the CEO of Fog Creek Software, a bootstrapped software company in New York, NY.

We make FogBugz, a bug tracking system that actually works and can be used to manage everything your development team does, from bug tracking to customer email to feature management to project scheduling and so much more. Free online trial.

We also make Fog Creek Copilot, which lets you control someone else's computer (with their permission, of course) over the Internet. It's the best way to fix someone's computer problems remotely. There's nothing to install, it's simple as heck, and it works through any kind of firewall, NAT, or proxy situation with zero configuration. More

If you're in college, Fog Creek Software has a very cool paid internship program (last year's interns developed Copilot in one summer). We also run a Software Management Training Program, an intensive two year program for college graduates to learn about managing high tech that combines a Masters in Technology Management with extensive hands-on experience in a variety of positions.

Share links to interesting URLs with other readers at the Joel Reddit (about).

Wondering what it's like to develop software at Fog Creek? The documentary Aardvark'd covers the story of the development of Copilot. It's available on DVD.

Read the archives in dead-tree format! There are now four books available at your favorite bookstore: User Interface Design for Programmers, Joel on Software, Smart and Gets Things Done, and More Joel on Software. All are excellent ways to catch up on years of the drivel that appears here without going blind reading it on a computer screen.

Fog Creek co-founder Michael Pryor has his own site on Technical Interview Questions.

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