A current meme in the tech world is as insidious as spam and twice as malicious. It can be summed up in a single word: fail.

Last week Firefox released the latest version of its browser, Firefox 3.0. Their goal was to get the most software ever downloaded in a single 24-hour period. The servers crashed with all the folks downloading it. That’s when the insults started flying. Suddenly Firefox, the browser many of us techies are using and enjoying for free became an object of scorn, a virtual whipping boy.

Technology has long been a spectator sport. Those that don’t “get it” often watch from the sidelines, trying to understand what we’re doing. This meme concerns me because:

-The word “fail” is dismissive. It’s arrogant. It says, “I declare it failed; therefore it failed.”

-There are no absolutes. There is good and a measure of success in every attempt. What if we honor that in the people around us? What if we encourage what is working rather than scornfully dismissing what isn’t?

-The word “fail” leaves little wiggle room for a person (or company) to “improve.” It doesn’t say, “you messed up. Let’s see you do it better next time!” It says, “Fail. Nothing to see here. Move on.”

-Declaring someone or something else “failed” makes us feel better about ourselves, doesn’t it? If it’s “them” or “that” which “failed” we don’t have to look at ourselves to discover areas in which we, too, might be falling short.

-It’s often completely inaccurate. Firefox 3, for instance, didn’t fail. It went down but still succeeded in its goal. I think “old media” is doing a much better job at showing how things can falter but not “fail.”

We’re in a New Media world. Here, we could learn from Old Media. Approaching problems with balance takes courage. Dismissing an individual or company (startup or otherwise) as FAIL might temporarily give us a sense of power. In the long-term it hurts our community because it doesn’t leave the door open for us to explore what it is about the company that failed. A movement or community that isn’t exploring is a dog chasing its own tail. We’re bigger than that, y’all.

Wordcount: 359

(MicroBells are quickies. 300-500 word posts, they are considerably longer than twitter’s 140 characters but shorter than my usual page long posts. Let me know what you think about this new format!)