It’s happened once before – that time, a Hungarian cool-photography website posted a link to my silkworm rearing page, and the course of a single day, the site got nearly five thousand hits. It didn’t have any really directly visible results, other than a spike in my hit numbers, but when they went back down, they didn’t go quite as far as they had been – routine traffic went from 200 – 300 hits per day to 500 – 600. It’s stayed up since, spiking after things like my article hitting Knitty, a print mention in “No Sheep for You” (thanks Amy!) and a couple of magazine articles.
At some point early this morning, a user posted a link to my Cecropia page on a website called reddit.com. Traffic surged upward – it was close to five thousand by the time I got to work.
Now:
If you can’t read the tiny numbers, it was just over fourteen thousand, at twenty minutes to two in the afternoon. By the time I typed this in, just at two, it had topped fifteen thousand.
Ironically, I can’t even put the photo on my website – because the website is crashing occasionally because of the traffic. It’s still there, and I’m not hitting a bandwidth threshhold or anything – it’s just swamping the server.
A lot of them are just fly-by’s, but still!
Oh, and unrelated (I think) – I got an email this morning from a French researcher who wants ultra-light harnesses (!!!) for butterflies (!?!?). The tether has to be less than .1 gram per 30 meters.
I can reel that.
Oh, and unrelated (I think) – I got an email this morning from a French researcher who wants ultra-light harnesses (!!!) for butterflies (!?!?). The tether has to be less than .1 gram per 30 meters.
I can reel that.
♥
really.
That’s really intriguing! Did he say what he’s researching. I’m picturing some crazy Frenchman with butterflies tethered to his shirt buttons or something…
Well, so far it’s just an initial contact, and my reply saying that I could probably match her requirements, although I’m not sure how MANY tethers worth I could make – it’s about half the weight of my usual silk, so it’s going to be fine and somewhat finicky to handle. She said it’s something to do with behavioral ecology; I’m sure I’ll get more details if it goes forward.
Congratulations on the popularity, and the fact that somewhere out there, you are contributing to the wider world of knowledge!
wow
very interesting 🙂
The day my pink laptop project hit the front page of Slashdot, I got thrown off my Chinese web-hoster for obviously hosting pirated software, for why else would there be suh a spike? I was on their ‘Unlimited’ plan, which wasn’t.
This was the day before Christmas, and I had to haul ass to move exonome.com. Obviously your hoster is of a higher caliber than mine was.
Oh, no!
Sounds like one of those “what good luck / what bad luck” things. I have noticed a few times this afternoon that the site appears to be down, but I think it’s just a traffic speed issue – you just have to refresh to get it.
I keep hoping that I won’t bump up against my bandwidth ceiling; I’m with GoDaddy, and it’s their “deluxe” plan, but it’s still just a cheap rate….
Did he say *why* he wants butterfly harnesses?!!? I can only picture him walking down the street, with a bunch of butterflies in tow…
And congrats!
She’s doing something with behavioral ecology… I’m guessing that .1 gram is some sort of threshhold beyond which the butterfly won’t fly naturally? The main thing that puzzles me, is how will they keep from TANGLING? Thread that fine, will hook onto just about anything…
Butterflies
Butterfly harnesses??? Now that’s interesting. Does she have a butterfly ranch? I’m left wondering who the riders would be . . . 🙂
Re: Butterflies
I think that “leashes” or “tethers” is really more like what she’s needing – although I’m just guessing that. The fact that she needs 30m of the thread to weigh less than .1g, indicates that it’s probably going to be tying them down. But, who knows… maybe they’re strapping on tiny, tiny cameras? Or very minute jockeys?
Re: Butterflies
Okay, so I want to see pictures of what you come up with please. And I’m now imagining that skill listed on a job resume. 🙂
Re: Butterflies
What I’m planning to come up with, is 30m of filament silk weighing less than a tenth of a gram. What she does with it from there, I’m just as curious as you!
You deserve that attention. Your stuff is so fantastically interesting.
:chuckle: That would give a little different flavor to the web stats, hey?
Dang, that was your page? I loved it and sent it around work. A+ stuff. 🙂
Hee. Yup, that was me! Apparently, a LOT of people sent it around their offices – I ended the day at just over twenty-six thousand hits.
Way kewl on the hits!
Butterfly harnesses??? Now this I have GOT to see!