Fail Pets
With the rise of Web 2.0 services such as Twitter, end-user facing error messages such as HTTP 404 and HTTP 503 started to be displayed with whimsical characters, termed Fail Pets or Error Mascots. The term "Fail Pet" was coined, or at least first used in print, by Mozilla Engineer Fred Wenzel in a post on his blog entitled "Why wikipedia might need a fail-pet — and why mozilla does not." Dr. Sean Rintel argues that error messages are a critical strategic moment in brand awareness and loyalty. Fail Pets are of interest to marketers because they can result in brand recognition (especially through earned media). "However, that same recognition carries the danger of highlighting service failure." The most famous Fail Pet is Twitter's Fail Whale (see Twitter service outages). Other Fail Pets include:
- Tumblr: Tumbeasts
- Neatorama: Neatokraken
- Ars Technica: Moon Shark
- Github: Octocat
- Google: Broken robot
- Apple iCloud: Cloud with Apple System 7 emoticon-style face
- Twitter: Fail Whale / Twitter Robot
- YouTube: Televisions
- FarmVille on Facebook: Sad cow.
- Scratch: Scratch cat shrugging next to a box full of scratchblocks and sprites.
- Roblox: A Robloxian running from dynamite
- Club Penguin: Clown
- Steam: Skull
- Adultswim.com:Error
- PlayStation Home: Network Error
- Family Guy Online: Newsman
Read more about this topic: Error Message
Famous quotes containing the words fail and/or pets:
“People who are not in love fail to understand how an intelligent man can suffer because of a very ordinary woman. This is like being surprised that anyone should be stricken with cholera because of a creature so insignificant as the common bacillus.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“How wonderful to meet such a natural little girl. She knows what she wants and she asks for it. Not like these over-civilized little pets that have to go through analysis before they can choose an ice cream soda.”
—John Lee Mahin (1902–1984)