

Ask HN: How big is the slashdot-effect of front-page HN post? - babuskov

Hi,&lt;p&gt;I&#x27;m creating a multiplayer free-to-play strategy game using HTML5 Canvas, socket.io and node.js. It&#x27;s almost complete, and I&#x27;ll probably do a Show HN post. The source code inside HTML page will not be minified, so anyone could read it and see how I did some stuff (or even write their own client).&lt;p&gt;To save myself a future embarrassment, I&#x27;d like to prepare the server(s) well for the incoming traffic in case people really like it and it reaches the front page. Can anyone share some numbers?&lt;p&gt;TIA
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WestCoastJustin
Quick google search [1]. TaskMessenger.com did a write up on March 1, 2013 [2]
about this very thing, which _led to 8,040 page views and 6,111 unique
visits_. JetStrap.com did a write up in October 2012 [3] about this very
thing, which led to _20,000 new users_.
[http://shkspr.mobi](http://shkspr.mobi) did a write up in November 2012 [4]
about this very thing, which led to _30,000 extra visitors._.

p.s. Getting on HN front page is hard! These people had cool topics and a bit
of luck. Do no be surprised if you post and you get 1-2 up votes and that's
it.

[1]
[https://www.google.ca/?q=hacker+news+front+page+stats](https://www.google.ca/?q=hacker+news+front+page+stats)

[2] [http://taskmessenger.com/blog/index.php/google-analytics-
aft...](http://taskmessenger.com/blog/index.php/google-analytics-after-our-
post-made-hacker-news-frontpage/)

[3] [http://blog.jetstrap.com/2012/10/20000-users-in-a-week-hn-
fr...](http://blog.jetstrap.com/2012/10/20000-users-in-a-week-hn-front-page-
post-mortem/)

[4] [http://shkspr.mobi/blog/2012/11/whats-the-front-page-of-
hack...](http://shkspr.mobi/blog/2012/11/whats-the-front-page-of-hackernews-
worth/)

~~~
babuskov
Thanks. Especially shkspr.mobi blog was informative with all the little
details. I expected it to be much more, so I guess a single dedicated server
will do just fine.

~~~
WestCoastJustin
Yeah, you should check out AWS EC2. You can ramp up to a large server for your
anticipated spike and then back down afterwards. That way you are not spending
big bucks for a server you don't need yet.

