posted
On this forum, what does the term 'mayfly' mean? My best guess is that it is used when someone needs help or advice. Also, where or how did this term originate?
I have never seen it before, and the urban dictionary does not list it, so I'm tempted to think that it is a local term.
quote:Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head: A mayfly thread is a thread which will likely be deleted.
In other words, it has an expected life-span of no more than a day, just like a mayfly.
Interesting.
All the instances where I have seen seem to be when people are asking for some sort of help. The potential is there for useful information I would think, but I don't know what the prerequisites are for deleting threads.
Posts: 369 | Registered: Apr 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Valentine014: To be honest, I don't think most mayflies ever get deleted, they just drop off the page.
hmm.
If a mayfly thread doesn't get deleted but just droppes off the page, and all threads eventually drop off the page. That means all threads are mayfly.
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posted
I think "hostage" might be a good term. You might kill it, you might not, but no one should count on seeing it alive tomorrow.
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quote: If a mayfly thread doesn't get deleted but just droppes off the page, and all threads eventually drop off the page. That means all threads are mayfly.
Um, no. That's a horrible attempt at logic.
Posts: 2489 | Registered: Jan 2002
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quote:Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head: A mayfly thread is a thread which will likely be deleted.
In other words, it has an expected life-span of no more than a day, just like a mayfly.
Interesting.
All the instances where I have seen seem to be when people are asking for some sort of help. The potential is there for useful information I would think, but I don't know what the prerequisites are for deleting threads.
Yeah, I don't know why people feel the need to mayfly requests for help either.
And it seems to me too that most mayfly threads don't actually get deleted. But still, it's understood that a mayfly thread may get deleted, so responder beware.
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posted
My recollection is that it started as a way to get the attention of one person -- along the lines of "hey dkw, did you get the e-mail I sent you?" or "pooka, what was the name of that book you quoted from yesterday?" And once that question was answered the thread was deleted. The mayfly title indicated a short-lived thread, not really of interest to the forum at large, unlike a discussion thread. But then it caught on, and people began using it for more general questions that did spark discussion and so weren't deleted. I also think some people who weren't here when the convention started confused it with "Mayday" and thought it meant a request for help, so it's migrated toward that usage.
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quote:By the way, I am committed to doing no disservice here, and if anyone finds these links or this thread objectionable, I will gladly delete. Therefore, consider it a Mayfly Thread.
ClaudiaTherese, February 20, 2005
It was a first post of a highly trafficked thread, so that may be where I got the impression she started it.
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quote: If a mayfly thread doesn't get deleted but just droppes off the page, and all threads eventually drop off the page. That means all threads are mayfly.
Um, no. That's a horrible attempt at logic.
MEC,
It was supposed to be a joke. It goes back to a joke I heard as a kid:
God is love. Love is blind. Stevie Wonder is blind; therefore, Stevie Wonder is God.
Sorry the joke flopped.
Posts: 1766 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
There was a mayfly thread the week I registered. It had absolutely no purpose, just said mayfly in the title then everyone responded silly things and it was eventually deleted. That was April 04. I had gotten the impression there were threads like DKW described before that.
I don't think anyone has said it yet, mayfly comes from the fact that mayflies have a short lifespan.
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posted
Miss that someone has already said something that she thinks nobody has said. (See breyer's post.)
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I know, we can make it about religion or politics and it will never go away. Here goes: George Bush hates mayfly. or... If a mayfly thread is deleted, does it go to heaven?
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posted
mph: breyer said that she didn't think anyone had mentioned the connection to mayflies' lifespan. pooka quoted you to show that you already had, and then apologized for pointing it out, because it can sometimes make people feel foolish to have it pointed out that they missed something that was already posted. Noemon was confused as to what pooka was apologizing for, and I attempted to clarify, but without giving full context.
posted
Ah. Thanks. I thought that you were saying that I had said something that somebody else had already said, but that didn't make sense, since my post was before Breyer's.
quote: If a mayfly thread doesn't get deleted but just droppes off the page, and all threads eventually drop off the page. That means all threads are mayfly.
Um, no. That's a horrible attempt at logic.
MEC,
It was supposed to be a joke. It goes back to a joke I heard as a kid:
God is love. Love is blind. Stevie Wonder is blind; therefore, Stevie Wonder is God.
Sorry the joke flopped.
I apoligize, I thought you were either attempting to discern what Mayfly meant, or you were trying to make a joke. Either way I thought it may confuse someone who didn't know what the term meant. I should have probably been a bit more light-hearted.
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quote:Originally posted by brojack17: If a mayfly thread doesn't get deleted but just droppes off the page, and all threads eventually drop off the page. That means all threads are mayfly.
Although, in all seriousness, there is never any knd of guarantee that a thread will continue to exist. There are a myriad of reasons why it may be an ex-thread, many of which could be rather unpleasant.
Posts: 369 | Registered: Apr 2007
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posted
My recollection is that CT did start it. I wonder if to a mayfly, a day represents a long long time.
In D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's famous and influential book "On Size and Life", he says (if I'm remembering right) that all mammals live roughly the same number of breaths, and roughly the same number of heartbeats, except for humans who live a whole lot more breaths/heartbeats than the norm. There was a graph with a log scale, as I remember, and all the points representing the average number of breaths/heartbeats in each mammalian species' standard lifespans were plotted in a big cluster, then humanity's point stood out by itself.
I remember that time passed much more slowly when I was a kid, too. That summer used to last nearly forever, and an afternoon could be a huge chunk of time in which to play and imagine. So I think the faster your heartbeat and breathing, the more slowly time seems to pass for you. I'm wondering, then, if all mammals live about the same subjective time, except for us and we live far longer.
I wonder to what age we would live if we had the standard number of heartbeats and breaths in our lifespans. I seem to remember it's about 25.
Maybe a mayfly's day seems to it to be about as long as 25 years would seem to us. Not that the mayfly is a mammal. And not that insects probably have a whole lot in the way of subjective experience. But who knows? Who would think a human did, actually, if they were looking from the outside at preliterate, preindustrial creatures?
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