Damien Mulley is just too damn successful.
June 21st, 2007 by FrankDamiens Sky Handling Partners story (as posted about just recently) made the front page of Digg.
Which sent LOADS of traffic his way, bringing Sky Handling Gobshites terrible customer service to the attention of god knows how many people… EXCEPT… so many people tried to read about it that it killed Damien’s site.
Ouch.
With so many people blogging these days and praying they make the front page of Digg or other social network sites, who is actually prepared for the onslought of traffic?
How do we get stories like these to the attention of enough people without killing our websites?
Answers on a postcard please. Or comment below.
Update: Damien’s site seems to be up again, so it was down for about an hour give or take. I assume somebody at the hosting end sorted him out – anyone want to comment? I’m curious ab()out this end of things in case someday I post something that drives traffic to this tumbleweed infested plain… 
Update: Damien’s site down again (2.30am) – this time because the traffic used up all his bandwidth. 
Ah the trials of success.
Update: So it seems that Damien’s site was only down for 15 minutes before his host (and ours) moved him to a super server to keep his site up! Would you host sort you out like that in the middle of the night? Serious question!
Entries (RSS)
June 21st, 2007 at 11:53 am
Frank,
The server you are on right now is similarly speced to the original server Damien was on. However we could easily migrate you to one of the newer quad core machines if you want.
Main points to note:
php 5.2.x and mysql 5.x are used on the newer machines. (for technical reasons I can’t move you to the same machine as Damien, long boring story really).
Let us know either way.
June 21st, 2007 at 11:56 am
When reaching the front page of Digg puts sites not ready for it under pressure, I usually end up reading of a caching solution that most people can employ – assuming there’s no need for the relevant post to be updated.
One of the commenters on Damien’s post also alludes to a WordPress plugin to implement this solution.
June 21st, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Thanks guys!
Thanks Paul – I don’t think I’m in any danger of suffering from that level of traffic for now anyway
Well done on keeping the site up!
June 21st, 2007 at 12:19 pm
wp-cache is being installed on Damiens blog as I type this. Himself and one of our techies are looking after it.
I’d suggest anyone using wordpress use wp-cache
Frank: The offer is open if you ever require it. Chances are though, the server you are on will simply be upgraded to a newer hard core version in the not too distant future
Paul
June 21st, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Brilliant.
I should look into Wp-cache again myself – I tried to get it working before to no avail. I found it an un-intuitive and awkward little bollix!
I might get onto you guys about it.
Thanks again Paul!
Frank
June 21st, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Again, give us a shout, Michele is captain of wordpress at this stage with myself and Niall following behind. We’ll help you get it setup.
Paul
June 21st, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Frank I know a way of getting onto Digg- it’s a bit complicated though. First you have to fly into Cork and have your baggage lost, then you post about how unhelpful the handling company is, preferably calling them cunts, and then…
June 22nd, 2007 at 2:09 am
December 30th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Great post! Damien is what some would call a “wonderful troublemaker”… the Sky Handling Story is case in point! In my opinion, success brings all sorts… usually people who begrudge you that success! Strangely though, I’ve never known that to be the case with Damien… I think everyone is of the opinion that it’s well-earned. One thing I will say for Damien is that no matter what, he never forgets “the little people”. While I don’t understand the ‘tech’ side of blogging too well, I do understand the human side. I have just got into blogging a short while back and have only just set up my own blog-page… to my amazement, Damien gave me a link-back to help me! It meant a lot to an “invisible” person… and that is what has made Damien successful. Blogger humility, so I say more power to him!