The 'Helicarrier effect'
Posted by Huw,
I've spoken before about the 'Brickset effect' which occurs when we link to other sites or promote offers which then see a spike in traffic or sell out as a result. Yesterday Brickset experienced something similar, the 'Helicarrier effect', at about 2:30pm GMT. The graph to the right, from Google Analytics real-time reporting, shows the number of users on the site and the number of pages per second being served as you all clamored to find out more about this highly anticipated set. It's the highest I've seen it since Mark Stafford linked to the list of sets he's designed from Reddit when the Exo-Suit was revealed last summer. Thankfully the server stood up to the assault...
Unrelated, but relevant: you might have noticed that set images are now stored on Brickset's server and not at 1000steine.com. I moved them as an experiment to see if the server could handle it and also to enable new features to be added in future, such as allowing anyone to upload images for the 'alternative images' galleries. I think yesterday proved that it can, so I will leave them on it. Having everything at brickset.com also means there will be one less point of failure.
Brickset uses a content delivery network to ease load on the server which produces reports on bandwidth usage and so on. Now that images are served via the CDN I can see, for the first time, how much bandwidth is used. Yesterday it was 148Gb of which 100Gb was served by the CDN. Prior to moving the images it was about 30Gb. So the CDN is definitely worth having...
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19 comments on this article
I do have my share in the traffic :-)
Wow, that's great! I imagine that one day I will get the similar effect to my youtube channel.
Amazing! I'm looking forward to the release pictures of the other D2C set: the Ninjago Temple. We'll see if it results in a similar peek....
I thought maybe the Helicarrier effect had to do with that Mccutchen guy continuously posting his non-sensical posts on the Helicarrier posts in the forum. That guy cracked me up, before he got banned.
Do not really desire seeing these sort of articles, its kind of like boasting about a natural effect that would occur regardless of site. New set image releases and the site gets more views, its very obvious.
In addition you added the Helicarrier article as 2:00, yet this article states the spike didn't occur for another 30 minutes. This gap implies that you really need to have a more effective sharing method rather than relying on people sharing it for you. As shown by the social traffic, Facebook seems to be the best place to share, so probably best trying to make that more effective.
Sorry if you didn't like it. I find web statistics fascinating and just thought others would too.
Traffic was at that level for about an hour or so after it appeared on Facebook and Twitter.
As a frequent reader who has recently been spending more time on the site (having more free time lately), I definitely find the article fascinating! Thanks for posting it, Huw! I personally would appreciate more.
I also find that this type of news has a place here. I really like reading them and discovering what happens in the background. If I come on Brickset, it is because I like lego bricks of course but also because of what the the website is. So it is great to learn a bit more :)
Wow! That is awesome. Glad Brickset is getting so much traffic. After all the hard work you have continually put into it @Huw. Thank You for posting this intriguing article. I hope to see more of these kind of articles. Keep up the good work. Huzzah!
Quite the opposite of Scarilian, I *love* seeing this kind of stuff, how the back-end works and all that.
I love Brickset and I'm glad you guys are getting all the extra traffic. I just hope it doesn't interfere with my obsessive site checking lol. Seems like everything is holding up just fine so ::cheers::
I think Huw should call it the McCutchen effect. :)
@Huw
"Sorry if you didn't like it. I find web statistics fascinating and just thought others would too."
Its ok, its less the web statistics and more the first paragraph. Kind of seems unnecessary to me to say about how the website gets more viewers/commenters/activity after a new article that's related to what people want to talk about. The statics on their own are a nice incite though.
@Gev
"how the back-end works and all that"
I like that aspect also, which is why I have no issue with the other paragraphs which talk about the website or the server capacities or minor changes in how the website operates. Just the first is not on about the back-end works behind the website and more saying that the website becomes more popular when they release news, which I felt was a little unnecessary to state
I think I helped contribute to that spike in traffic.... :-)
Nothing wrong with being proud of the great things you've done with Brickset. This is the 1 LEGO-related website I visit, and I come here almost every single day.
I love articles like this. They make very interesting reading.
There were quite a few articles about the Helicarrier on FB. Inevitably, because I'm a Lego fan, my friends kept tagging me in the posts. I replied with a link to this site each time so hopefully we'll have some new members too.
I'm not quite sure about the 'boasting' comment. It was all about an effect a desirable set can create.
I dare say that Lego get a spike when sites, such as this one, post new images and details. When I hear a rumour or something interesting ... straight onto Brickset.
I would be proud to have created such a great and popular site.
I definitely find these types of articles interesting. And I think the first paragraph is just explaining the phenomenon for those who might not think of it as obvious.
@resg41 are you sure it wasn't a similar set? It's not due out for months.
Take a photo next time you're there if it is indeed it!
I'm going to be near Richmond this afternoon!! I might have to pop by!
I think i understood half the words in the article, but the graph is nice :)