Slashdot Effect
Noun · Hacker Culture
Definitions
A sudden surge in traffic that overwhelms a small website after it is linked from a major online source, originally Slashdot. The phrase is now used more broadly for any popularity-driven spike that infrastructure was not prepared to handle.
In plain English: A traffic spike so large it overwhelms a site after getting linked by a popular source.
Example: "The docs site went down from a modern version of the Slashdot effect after the launch hit social media."