Seriously. If your calendar says 2008 or later, and you’re a metro-market news site, and you can’t handle a wave of traffic from Drudge or Digg or Slashdot or any of the popular linkfarms, you should rethink your server budget.
(Yeah. I know. I should be so lucky.)
UPDATE: I questioned posting this, because I thought it bordered on unfair. But now two hours later, the same article on tampabay.com is still being linked by Drudge and is still making their server swoon. Unsolicited advice: make it a static page for now.
UPDATE 2: As of 12:15 pm, the site appears to be stabilized. Glad they’re back.
Danny says
October 14, 2008 at 9:44 amLooks like they got it back up. I was able to see it this a.m. also. I think more than anything, this example underscores that sites need emergency plans to handle a traffic spike like that. However, the St. Pete Times, being a totally independent site, doesn't have the same resources as Tribune or Gannett and its hordes of IT people [Disclaimer: I used to be an intern there]. Being the primo link on Drudge during the election season is probably an unprecedented traffic spike for them.
timwindsor says
October 14, 2008 at 10:01 amAs I mentioned above, I was conflicted about posting this. We've all been slammed by the double-edge of Drudge's links at our day jobs, but I think it's a good example of why it's important, as you note, to have a recovery plan for when this happens.
Danny says
October 14, 2008 at 10:44 amLooks like they got it back up. I was able to see it this a.m. also. I think more than anything, this example underscores that sites need emergency plans to handle a traffic spike like that. However, the St. Pete Times, being a totally independent site, doesn't have the same resources as Tribune or Gannett and its hordes of IT people [Disclaimer: I used to be an intern there]. Being the primo link on Drudge during the election season is probably an unprecedented traffic spike for them.
timwindsor says
October 14, 2008 at 11:01 amAs I mentioned above, I was conflicted about posting this. We've all been slammed by the double-edge of Drudge's links at our day jobs, but I think it's a good example of why it's important, as you note, to have a recovery plan for when this happens.
Danny says
October 14, 2008 at 3:44 pmLooks like they got it back up. I was able to see it this a.m. also. I think more than anything, this example underscores that sites need emergency plans to handle a traffic spike like that. However, the St. Pete Times, being a totally independent site, doesn't have the same resources as Tribune or Gannett and its hordes of IT people [Disclaimer: I used to be an intern there]. Being the primo link on Drudge during the election season is probably an unprecedented traffic spike for them.
timwindsor says
October 14, 2008 at 4:01 pmAs I mentioned above, I was conflicted about posting this. We've all been slammed by the double-edge of Drudge's links at our day jobs, but I think it's a good example of why it's important, as you note, to have a recovery plan for when this happens.