Is The Slashdot Effect Going Away?
from the or-does-anyone-care? dept
In an article that was clearly designed to test its own theories out by getting linked from Slashdot, BusinessWeek Online is asking if the Slashdot Effect is fading? The evidence certainly suggests so. Many sites claim that the impact of getting linked from Slashdot is no longer what it used to be. There are fewer visitors and they seem to come only for an hour or two after the post. Our own experience here at Techdirt shows a similar result. Getting linked from Slashdot these days doesn't seem to have the same kind of kick it used to. However, the reasoning in the Business Week article doesn't make that much sense. Basically, the reporter suggests that because Slashdot links to a wider variety of sites, fewer people are clicking through to them. This doesn't seem to follow logically. Why should the number of sites that Slashdot links to impact how many people click through? You could argue that if Slashdot was posting more stories, people would pick and choose more carefully which to click through -- but that has nothing to do with the diversity in sources. There can be many more reasons for the dampening of the Slashdot effect. For many sites, including Techdirt, our own traffic has grown tremendously as well -- so if Slashdot hasn't grown at the same rate (even if they outpace us greatly in absolute numbers), then the impact in percentage terms is obviously going to be less. Also, it may just show how people use Slashdot differently these days then they used to (more for discussion, rather than link discovery).
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diversity
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No Subject Given
www.fark.com
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Tongue firmly in cheek...
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Not clicking on links
Also, so many postings are from the same sites, that I have now added those sites to my bookmarks/favorites and read those instead of Slashdot.
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No Subject Given
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Re: No Subject Given
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I agree too
Seems like they got so much money from the advertising that they dont care about the product anymore.
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great site that is hard on the eyes.
Of course.. your site is STILL butt ass ugly , which you simply refuse to do anything about.
You'd have so much more traffic if you just fixed a few things. I have been posting about how ugly your site is for years.
Use some of that money from The Feature and take care of that bucko!
a fan.
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slashdot
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Business week Online
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Or just that Slashdot sucks?
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Slashdot is becoming less popular
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