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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>flash crowd</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../F.html" title="F"/><link rel="previous" href="flarp.html" title="flarp"/><link rel="next" href="flat.html" title="flat"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">flash crowd</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="flarp.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">F</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="flat.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="flash-crowd"/><dt xmlns="" id="flash-crowd"><b>flash crowd</b></dt></dt><dd><p> Larry Niven's 1973 SF short story <i class="citetitle">Flash Crowd</i>
predicted that one consequence of cheap teleportation would be huge crowds
materializing almost instantly at the sites of interesting news stories.
Twenty years later the term passed into common use on the Internet to
describe exponential spikes in website or server usage when one passes a
certain threshold of popular interest (what this does to the server may
also be called <a href="../S/slashdot-effect.html"><i class="glossterm">slashdot effect</i></a>). It has been
pointed out that the effect was anticipated years earlier in Alfred Bester's
1956 <i class="citetitle">The Stars My Destination</i>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="flarp.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../F.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="flat.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">flarp </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> flat</td></tr></table></div></body></html>