Travellers’ Tales
Although signed up to Twitter, I am not a regular user and so I was completely unaware of the Fail Whale community and pop cultural icon that the Fail Whale image and error message had become.
Whilst studying for the Digital Cultures Module on the MSc Elearning course run by Edinburgh University I encountered two error messages in quick succession. One whilst using Wallwisher and the other when trying to read some core reading. Both were completely different and I particularly liked the Wallwisher message as it parodied the ‘Matrix film’.
I subsequently blogged about the error messages and how they reflected different visual aspects of digital culture and cyberspace. I indicated that I was considering using the reflections and cybermemes they represented as part of a visual artefact assignment. Comments ensued and my tutor replied flagging other relevant error messages, including the ‘Fail Whale’ error message used by microblogging site Twitter. Following up her suggestions I subsequently found a copy of the image on Flickr and unearthed the community networks springing from and underlying it.
Twitter users will have seen the Fail Whale error message quite regularly between May and July 2008 and this combined with new community networks springing up in Twitter, Facebook and Flickr, amongst others, meant that fans of the image initially had a place to come together to post, discuss and share sightings of the Whale. This activity snowballed as more and more users joined twitter and fans ran with the idea, so much so the Twitter Fail Whale ‘took on a life of its own’ and is now considered an icon. Other ‘fans’ may have joined the community as word spread amongst colleagues and friends and sightings were posted across different online social networks. Finally others outside the online networks may have found their way to the Fail Whale communities due to the press coverage (newspaper articles, TV shows, Cartoons) reviewing the Fail Whale story, project or phenomenon.
I have still not personally seen the Fail Whale error 404 message insitu whilst using Twitter and so I will not fully feel part of the community until I do. Meanwhile many of the Twitter Fail Whale fans have remained loyal and true to Twitter throughout the technical problems and to the Fail Whale image itself, which helps to minimise feelings of frustration during downtime it seems.
