Is Slashdot Toast?

June 24, 2001 1:30 PM

Is Slashdot Toast? I found this using a link from F**kedcompany, who seems to be rather amused by the fact that /. has been down since friday. The posts at geekizoid seem rather flaky for the most part, so I don't know how seriously to take this. But in any case, it's just not like the Slashdot crew to drop off the net without a word.... What have all of you out in MeFi land heard????
posted by BGM (23 comments total)

A post that mildly and eloquently criticized Linux for one of its shortcomings was modded up instead of down causing all 6 of their servers to crash in unison.
posted by skallas at 1:35 PM on June 24, 2001

I think they're just practicing
posted by fooljay at 2:04 PM on June 24, 2001

By the way, it's not just /. It looks like there's a massive outage at Andover.net. Somebody flipped the wrong light switch when they went home for the weekend.
posted by fooljay at 2:12 PM on June 24, 2001

so... is Holland, MI still the center of geek culture, as described by Rolling Stone? :)
posted by dagnyscott at 2:30 PM on June 24, 2001

Seriously: how long can /. last out, given the market climate?
posted by holgate at 2:38 PM on June 24, 2001

Possibly a hoax, possibly not. Something's going down, that's for sure.

Servers can certainly be down for days on end, even with redundant lines. British Telecom taught many UK businesses that several weeks ago now.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if Andover is folding. They're in the same boat as many other content sites, and if they can't sell Oracle or Sun system solutions from their site, they're toast.

I'd rather Slashdot didn't die. It's often entertaining, and it has been a major Web landmark for geeks everywhere. I've always enjoyed it. It has a certain lovable quality that many similar sites lack (kuro5hin, et al).
posted by wackybrit at 2:38 PM on June 24, 2001

According to osdn.com, Slashdot, Thinkgeek, Freshmeat and several other sites are 'experiencing technical difficulties with our network routing equipment'.

Nothing to see here, move on.
posted by paranoidfish at 2:42 PM on June 24, 2001

I don't think Slashdot would just die, those guys made it work before Andover and they'll find a way to make it work if Andover folds. It might be slower and die more often, but they'll do it.

Aren't they all a part of VALinux, who has some issues with their stock among other things? Anyway, this isn't F'dCo...

Yeah, I miss /. too, I've been hunting around looking for an explanation (chapter 11, site hacked, Illuminati, etc) and this is the first I've found.
posted by mutagen at 3:25 PM on June 24, 2001

Here we go. Their IP. It explains it, a bit.

http://216.136.171.207/
posted by wackybrit at 3:26 PM on June 24, 2001

Mm... yeah, it does. I don't have any problems accessing ThinkGeek, though...
posted by SpecialK at 3:45 PM on June 24, 2001

people, it's back up
slashdot.org
posted by swipe66 at 3:48 PM on June 24, 2001

It may be more along the lines of something suddenly went wrong. Sourceforge was down sometime around yetserday, with a message saying "down for emergency repairs."
posted by tomorama at 4:21 PM on June 24, 2001

if slahdot.org needs a host, then contact matt, he knows me.
posted by anocious at 4:44 PM on June 24, 2001

It was a router problem. Nothing to see here, move along.
posted by mathowie at 5:27 PM on June 24, 2001

they had a router meltdown.
posted by will at 5:29 PM on June 24, 2001

no evil software here ... move along, please move along.
posted by anocious at 5:35 PM on June 24, 2001

No robot servants of Yog Shoggoth here... move along, move along...
posted by solistrato at 7:49 PM on June 24, 2001

No elks...




Move along.
posted by davidgentle at 9:20 PM on June 24, 2001

I want to say move along too.

Move along.
posted by sonofsamiam at 9:54 PM on June 24, 2001

just VALinux being disassembled and sold for scrap.

move along.
posted by jcterminal at 10:04 PM on June 24, 2001

Those responsible for the sacking of those who configured the router have been sacked.

Move along.
posted by RylandDotNet at 11:09 PM on June 24, 2001

*cough*
posted by fooljay at 12:10 AM on June 25, 2001

Those responsible for the sacking of those responsible for .... oh fnord.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:04 AM on June 25, 2001