The Slashdot outage is the result of an intentional server shuffle. OSDN (Open Source Development Network Inc.) is updating Slash, the open source program behind the Slashdot system and moving Slashdot to bigger, better servers.
"It's a code refresh and server move. We try to do them going into the weekend in case there are any problems because we have less traffic on weekends than weekdays," said Robin "Roblimo" Miller, OSDN's Editor in Chief.
Miller added, "Rob [Malda, Slashdot's founder] should have posted a notice" that the site would be down for a while.
Slashdot is well known far outside its Linux and open source communities due to the enormous influence it has on technology readers. Sites which are featured on Slashdot have at times been overwhelmed by the traffic that comes their way as dozens to hundreds of times their normal viewers come their way. This sudden surge in Web site visitors is now known as the "Slashdot effect." It has even been studied and analyzed in at least one academic paper.
Other OSDN sites, NewsForge.com and IT Manager's Journal, are also being updated with a new look and new features.
However, "Slashdot will have no visible change," commented Miller. "We updated NewsForge.com and IT Manager's Journal earlier today. On those sites we not only changed the way they work but the way they look, and added new features to both of them to accommodate our growing and increasingly diverse readership."
Slashdot is expected to be back up shortly.
Inspiration
