BACKGROUND

The Do-Not-Slashdot ACT 1996 (was Do-Not-Dupe ACT then) is an pre-emptive ACT first drafted in September 1996, when one of the committee members heard a rumor about a new website code-named DupeDupeDupeDot.

According to several unconfirmed sources, this website was intended to be a 'News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters' weblog, which would consist of summaries (and sometimes hyperlinks) of news on other websites. There could be provisions for readers to comment on the news too.

Concerned by its potential to bring the Interweb (now Internet) to a halt with huge amount of traffics (ie the CBOS - Concentrated Blockage of Services, similar to the effect of drinking concentrated raspberry juice), the committee decided to put forward The Do-Not-Slashdot ACT for discussion in the public forum. The ACT was finally approved on Christmas Eve 1996, and put into action on The Boxing Day, 26 December 1996, in anticipation for the first DupeDupeDupeDot publication at the beginning of 1997.

Before long, words of DupeDupeDupeDot and The Do-Not-Slashdot ACT had spread across the Interweb community, and most websites had chosen to implement The Do-Not-Slashdot ACT early.

In September 1997, the inevitable happened. Slashdot (the formal name of DupeDupeDupeDot) was launched and became an instant success, shadowed only by the most successful CBOPS (Concentrated Blockage of Postal Services in July 1993) in the history.

Those who did not act swiftly or simply ignored the effectiveness of The Do-Not-Slashdot ACT had suffered the consequences of burnt-down server rooms and employment termination, just to name a few.

Even to this day, many websites still fell victim to the Slashdot effect. Like the old saying, there's a site slashdotted every second.

1. GUIDELINES FOR SITE OWNERS

• 1a. Place "This site is protected by The Do-Not-Slashdot ACT 1996" on your site's footer, the "The Do-Not-Slashdot ACT 1996" wording can be optionally hyperlinked to this page (http://www.interneh.com/DNS/act1996.html)
• 1b. NEVER place dynamic content (especially from a database) on your homepage.
• 1c. Construct your homepage as simply as possible.
• 1d. If you have alternative counter-Slashdot measures, use them. You may be able to prepare a backup-homepage (as per 1c) and serve this backup-homepage to Slashdot visitors, or replace your main homepage as soon as you felt the slashdot effect is approaching.
• 1e. If you must use dynamically constructed content from a database, use the Caching feature provided by your web serving platform, in order to reduce repeating SQL queries.
• 1f. Prepare caches/mirrors and use them with your alternative counter-Slashdot measures (if any). Coral(http://www.scs.cs.nyu.edu/coral/overview/) and MirrorDot(http://www.mirrordot.org/) are good options.

2. GUIDELINES FOR SLASHDOT USERS

• 2a. Make sure your browser's HTTP Header "HTTP_REFERER" is valid and not spoofed, so that other site owners (a.k.a. victims) may use other pre-emptive measures to avoid being slashdotted.
• 2b. Make sure you only access other websites by clicking on the hyperlinks from Slashdot. DO NOT copy a URL location and paste it in a new browser session.
• 2c. Do not hit the 'Refresh' button repeatedly if the requested site is not responding.
• 2d. Create and/or post caches/mirrors URL location as soon as humanely possible. Coral(http://www.scs.cs.nyu.edu/coral/overview/) and MirrorDot(http://www.mirrordot.org/) are good options.