[mathogre]

I hope not! Whereas the /. effect is typically short lived, the iPhone effect won't be.

Mostly the /. effect is an accepted condition with minimal carping from "outsiders". A story gets posted on /. and 10,000 computers hit the subject website. Any site without the bandwidth and/or server capacity to handle the onslaught gets hosed (a techincal term, that). The regular sites - New York Times, Information Week, et al - today have the ability to deal with the /. effect. Those sites that are not under the regular scrutiny of /. really have what amounts to a DDoS attack. It *isn't* that, but it acts like that. /.ers regularly mirror the subject webpage. IP issues notwithstanding, it's tolerated.

My guess is that situations like Duke may happen, but economics being what they are, they'll be solved without much fanfare. I wouldn't worry too much about it. I think it will be okay. Still, I'd watch it.

Regardless, it's a good point dtravis7!