I’ve previously posted this graph of Pinboard web traffic on the days immediately before and after the Delicious announcement. That small blue bar at bottom shows normal traffic levels from the week before. The two teal mountain peaks correspond to midday traffic on December 16 and 17th.
My immediate response was to try to log into the server and see if there was anything I could to do keep it from falling over. Cegłowski’s first law of Internet business teaches: “Never get in the way of people trying to give you money”, and the quickest way to violate it would have been to crash at this key moment. To my relief, the server was still reachable and responsive.
Over thirty hours.