The MetaFilter (Digg/Slashdot/Fark/Reddit) effect...

January 16, 2007 6:19 AM

Ever wonder what happens to a webserver's traffic when you post a link to it on MetaFilter?
posted by loquacious (23 comments total)

So this site is a self-link? It says "I submitted it", and you certainly have good access to the logs.
posted by Malor at 6:24 AM on January 16, 2007

I want a graph.
posted by chrismear at 6:26 AM on January 16, 2007

Bit early for drinking, innit it, lo?
posted by mediareport at 6:27 AM on January 16, 2007

Not sure I understand this post... ?
posted by cmicali at 6:27 AM on January 16, 2007

Malor: No. The guy posted the logs. I found it on Reddit.
posted by loquacious at 6:28 AM on January 16, 2007

chrismear writes 'I want a graph.'

Aye. Can't make head nor tail of those lists of URLs and numbers.
posted by jack_mo at 6:28 AM on January 16, 2007

Malor, you reckon loquacious owns eliteskills.com? whois says the owners name is james, while loquacious name is jason afaik.
On preview; dammit I type too slow. Here's a fun quote found on eliteskills.com
We taught him wrong so we could laugh at him later. -Kung Pow
posted by dabitch at 6:29 AM on January 16, 2007

I'm kind of surprised by the number, I would have expected more traffic..
posted by delmoi at 6:30 AM on January 16, 2007

So this site is a self-link? It says "I submitted it", and you certainly have good access to the logs.

It said he submitted it... to reddit, where someone found it and submitted it to metafilter.
posted by delmoi at 6:31 AM on January 16, 2007

Hrm. Extrapolating:

I read the logs the other day and found them entertaining, interpreting the logs to see the traffic ripple from one blog or feed to another, as well as the peaks of the traffic burst as various services pick up the link.

But I guess that means I can read log or something. Do I need to add the nerdporn tag?
posted by loquacious at 6:33 AM on January 16, 2007

I submitted it to MetaFilter, delmoi. What in the hell, did I pick the wrong UHF channel this morning? *recalibrates Oscillation Overthruster*

Maybe if we're lucky someone will whip up a graph for us, y'know, for science!
posted by loquacious at 6:36 AM on January 16, 2007

It shows digg is the traffic hub. I admit to an occasional interest in seeing traffic swarm stats. But I wonder if this isn't closer to Meta than Mefi.

And why is there a completely unrelated single boingboing link in that list? (I don't know why that struck me scanning the page)
posted by peacay at 6:38 AM on January 16, 2007

Maybe this is better suited for MetaTalk?
posted by yhbc at 6:42 AM on January 16, 2007

But I wonder if this isn't closer to Meta than Mefi.

It's kinda what the "Metafilter-related" category on MeTa is for.
posted by mediareport at 6:42 AM on January 16, 2007

Argh, I misread. My apologies. The original author was flogging it hard on reddit and digg, and I projected that he'd submitted it to MeFi too. That part, however, is in passive voice..."Metafilter linked it". Oops. *blush* Sorry, loquacious.

I wish the guy had done a little more processing on the info, but it's obvious that MeFi does drive some traffic now. Just eyeballing the larger numbers, it looks like about 3100 hits over the reporting period.

And yes, this probably would be better on Meta.
posted by Malor at 7:00 AM on January 16, 2007

Why put it on MeTa? Someone could sing the entire list of URLs, numbers etc., and then post it to MeFi Music. "Paging miss lynnster, white courtesy telephone, please..."
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:02 AM on January 16, 2007

Digg didn't even want the story until they saw it had become popular over here first. We are so freaking cool.
posted by yeti at 7:04 AM on January 16, 2007

Wait, wait, wait. These yellow words...you click on those?
posted by The Straightener at 7:14 AM on January 16, 2007 [2 favorites]

What's interesting about a mefi link is that, of itself, it's only good for a short and moderate (if pleasing) spike in traffic. It's the followup link diaspora that really makes things work—but mefi isn't a bad place to start that ball rolling.
posted by cortex at 7:19 AM on January 16, 2007

Wow. I thought hits would dry up like a raisin in the sun, but instead they exploded.
posted by Astro Zombie at 7:33 AM on January 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

This is so meta. How long until the web stats get posted for us checking out these web stats?
posted by Bugg at 7:41 AM on January 16, 2007

So now we can definitively determine a correct [via] snark! I propose all threads be accompanied by server logs.
posted by srboisvert at 7:42 AM on January 16, 2007

Can we have a follow-up thread to this follow-up thread? Eh, beaten by Bugg....
posted by JJ86 at 7:50 AM on January 16, 2007