Anyone who has been on the Interwebz for a while has probably come across the Slashdot Effect at some point. For those who haven't, it's basically when a whole bunch of people suddenly find out about something really cool or interesting online, and all of a sudden nearly everyone in the world seems to visit a particular website on the same day. So much so that it has been known to close down systems that can't handle the overload of people trying to all get onto the same web server. While certainly not on the scale of such global anarchy as I have just described, I've noticed my own little micro-"viral effect" occurring whenever I post a really well received answer to a question on one of my favorite Q/A sites.
