Twitter Sleeps with the Fishes

God forgive me but that's what I think whenever I see this screen.

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Comments

anjibee says:

you nut!

i was trying to figure out what it represents myself. the birds are, i suppose, tweets, but what does the smiling whale stand for? the weight of their overburdened system?
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

scriptingnews says:

Thanks!

That's one of the nicest things anyone has said to me today. :-)
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

Mykl Roventine says:

This image drives me crazy. I know I'm already angry when I see it, but I can't get over how wrong it feels. Those birds have no business carrying that poor whale. I've designed my own alternate version if you're interested.
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

kosso says:

I saw a really funny comment earlier from Jeremiah Owyang about this image :

Part of Twitter's problem is that a few of the birds are flying the WRONG WAY! :)
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

allen074 says:

you know what we should do - declare monday as fish icon day - and everyone change their icon to the fish icon you have above :)
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

ravidor says:

Actually I think it is more sophisticated then that.
This is obviously an allegoric illustration.
Sigmund Freud would have a field day here.

So, what do we have here?
A whale.
The whale is smiling.
The whale eyes are closed.
The whale is sleeping.
The whale is dreaming.
the whale tail is raised in the air (the tail looks like a mustache).
The whale is air born, carried by ropes held in the beaks of eight red birds, four facing to the left and four facing to the right.
The whale is carried above a red sea, the red sea has Sharpe waves in it (it looks to me like a bread knife).

Home work:
Please answer the questions below:

1) Is the whale happy? If yes, why?
2) What is the meaning of the whale tail?
3) What does the whale dream?
4) What does the whale represents?
5) Why are the birds red?
6) Why are four birds facing to the left and four facing to the right?
7) Why are the birds lifting the whale?
8) What do the birds represents?
9) What does the ropes represents?
10) Why is the sea red?
11) Why does the sea looks like a knife?
12) What does the sea represents?

Good luck!
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

billso says:

Heh! I just don't get this graphic... or Twitter's plan. Go down every weekend? What sort of system is that, anyway?
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

RL_ELO says:

Not sure I see the reason for the whale either. This is not a new and unknown situation. A potted petunia would be much more appropriate.
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

michaeljamespinto says:

If you made that into a t-shirt I'd buy it!
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

Barbara KB says:

Has anyone named the Twitter whale yet? Moby it ain't...
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

rexhammock says:

The whale's name is obvious - Scoby Dick.
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

bpetrik says:

The whale's name is Luca.
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

susan.beebe says:

That whale looks way too friggin happy to be in an outage! WTF?!
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

jeffmcneill says:

Fail Whale!
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

704 Race says:

The whale is being pulled from the ocean. It's minutes away from dying ;(
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

JL! says:

FAIL WHALE is genius!
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

allaboutgeorge says:

Well played, ravidor, well played.
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

Civixen says:

Biz just tweeted a link to this pic! FAIL Whale is famous! twitter.com/biz/statuses/823774824
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

Vincent X says:

Someone I know just made some Fail Whale t-shirts:

zazzle.com/bluebird7

I'm ordering mine!
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

brewcitybrand says:

I think it's a great graphic. I can see some of the critiques, and some of the frustration due to the technical issues lately...but...the graphic is pristine, fresh, and intriguing.

Who was the designer?
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

SeanOsteen says:

I love the Fail Whale! I'm starting a fan club:

FailWhale.com
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

John Rees says:

Consider adding this to my group
www.flickr.com/groups/twittererrors/
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

Frederick Van Johnson says:

the whale isn't smiling, I think it's been embalmed.
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

Dread Pirate Roberts says:

I took a shot at making my own fail whale awhile ago.
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

Ben and Kristin Carcio says:

Greenpeace objects to the new illegal whaling technique, they're calling it "seagull string whaling"
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

ojtibi says:

@ravidor maybe those are the questions we should ask Yiying Lu. :D

On the other hand, if Twitter was running on MySQL, shouldn't they have designed something with Sakila the Dolphin in it?
Posted 12 months ago. ( permalink )

Shovelling Son says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Twitter Over Capacity, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Posted 12 months ago. ( permalink )

Jym Dyer says:

=v= Save the whales! Ban driftnetting!
Posted 12 months ago. ( permalink )

TuneFish says:

I understood the meaning of this. I study hypnosis, and this image is supposed to hypnotize you by being totally meaningless.
Posted 11 months ago. ( permalink )

John Rees says:

Someone I know has immortalized the failwhale in a tattoo

Posted 11 months ago. ( permalink )

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Twitter Sleeps with the Fishes

Comments

anjibee says:

scriptingnews says:

Mykl Roventine says:

kosso says:

allen074 says:

ravidor says:

billso says:

RL_ELO says:

michaeljamespinto says:

Barbara KB says:

rexhammock says:

bpetrik says:

susan.beebe says:

jeffmcneill says:

704 Race says:

JL! says:

allaboutgeorge says:

Civixen says:

Vincent X says:

brewcitybrand says:

SeanOsteen says:

John Rees says:

Frederick Van Johnson says:

Dread Pirate Roberts says:

Ben and Kristin Carcio says:

ojtibi says:

Shovelling Son says:

Jym Dyer says:

TuneFish says:

John Rees says:

Would you like to comment?

scriptingnews' photostream

Twitter Over Capacity (Pool)

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