Nobody thinks Clippy was good, and that’s the point. In the original video Louis Rossmann does talk about Microsoft’s shenanigans with IE at the time.
The point is that Clippy was widely considered to be bad, and everyone considered Microsoft to be bad at the time, but everything involving technology has become so much worse since. Microsoft would be considered the most ethical tech company in the world if they still operated the way they did in the 90s. It’s not the Microsoft was good in the 90s (far from it!) it’s that Microsoft and all of the other tech companies have gotten so much worse since then.
The clippy thing is kinda genius really. We’ve been boiling the frog on a lot of things and we don’t really think about how much worse things are now than they used to be. People in positions of power now probably did encounter Clippy when they were younger. Reminding them about how annoying Clippy was may make them realize how much more annoying they’re being when making decisions about technology.
I hate clippy. As a millennial who did use the version of MS office (briefly anyway) that had clippy I did get a bit of nostalgia and I installed a VM of windows 95 and installed the version of office with clippy in it.
Then… I instantly remembered WHY I hated him. The reason is that when he pops up to offer you useless advice, he fully takes control and interrupts your work and you have to dismiss him to continue what you were doing. He does it often, too.
100th comment: Thank you for drawing, Mr. Clippy artist
Damn! I forgot a pen and now I have to memorize clippy’s source code.
I know that it is common to turn a symbol initially built against you into one which now benefits you, but I don’t think that’s whats going to happen with Clippy primarily because of message here isn’t “Clippy wants us to move into a future where we own our tech/social infrastructure” but instead “man, im really nostalgic for the way corporations used to treat us”
I have no problem using a symbol developed my Microsoft to spread anti-big tech messaging. The problem is that to a lot of people, the messaging doesn’t feel ant-big tech or anti-capitalist so much as it is just nostalgic. Microsoft was never a nice company. Even in the 1990s they were exercising their E.E.E (Embrace, Extend, Extinguish) strategy to beat federated and decentralized platforms and technologies. The goal of these companies (and you can see it now in their attitudes towards AI) is to own as much social infrastructure as they can. From where you get your news to where you get your friends. The only way to work against this is to work against big tech. There is no other way.
Part of me wonders if the message behind the current Clippy symbol can be bent into something more forward facing, but I also feel that that would be hard/would feel artificial because of the fact that Clippy is just now so connected to nostalgia.
I know that it is common to turn a symbol initially built against you into one which now benefits you
The idea behind using clippy was that when created, it wasn’t against you; it was always just there to help, with no alterior motive.
The problem is that to a lot of people, the messaging doesn’t feel ant-big tech or anti-capitalist
Seeing clippy is more of a message without a message. It could have been any image, but seeing this one thing everywhere starts to show you how many of us there are and that we are capable of working together to achieve a goal (in this specific case: outreach).
I’ve recently got an idea (a paranoid one) that this
Microsoft was never a nice company. Even in the 1990s they were exercising their E.E.E (Embrace, Extend, Extinguish) strategy to beat federated and decentralized platforms and technologies.
is a popular wrong myth.
Because Sun was still alive. That Sun. Seeming as if half of its employees were geniuses. Seeming as if they had a plan for all the industry for a 100 years forward. Which was the original “corporation of good”, almost nobody dares to treat it as something not sacred.
Sun’s plan was extremely hierarchical, and definitely not decentralization\federation minded.
Saying that a technology is universal (or not) requires understanding of it down to elements.
Maybe the Internet itself is conceived the way that it will always lead to centralization and hierarchy, as a tool to change the society.
See how IRL democracy and interoperability and choice in various situations were and even are absolutely normal, in friend groups and often in community places, but on the Internet you come to a place and it has moderators, appointed by other moderators and administrators, and administrators are gods, and there’s often no interoperability. And the longer it exists, the less interoperability there is.
Maybe we need a new global network, reimagined from ground zero with understanding of the risks. That is, a new common layer, where IP is in the Internet.
This is my new pfp btw
That’s allowed!
I love u 😳
it looks like you’re trying to invoke nostalgia for older days, do you want help with that?
No! If we just change our avatars to Clippy the tech giants will feel really bad and stop harvesting our data and locking us out of our products! Then we’ll be able to keep forking our money over to those same companies but it’ll be okay 'cause they’ll be nice now!
Clippy, how much is my information worth to you?
This communication serves as a formal notice regarding your unauthorized use of the likeness of Microsoft Clippy, a trademarked character owned by Microsoft Corporation. Your actions constitute a clear violation of our intellectual property rights.
The use of Clippy’s likeness in your project not only infringes upon our trademarks but also creates significant consumer confusion regarding the origin and sponsorship of your work. Such misrepresentation poses a direct threat to the integrity and reputation of the Clippy brand.
Please be advised that if you do not immediately cease and desist from this unauthorized use, we will take all necessary legal actions to protect our rights, including but not limited to the potential shutdown of your servers to prevent further infringement.
You are required to remove all references to Microsoft Clippy from your project and provide written confirmation of compliance by [specific date, e.g., 14 days from today]. Failure to comply will compel us to pursue legal remedies without further notice.
We expect your immediate attention to this serious matter.
Lol… I saw that headline (“Everyone should change their avatar to clippy. Seriously,” or something like that), and saw that it linked to a video, and I was just like ‘nah’.
It comes from Louis Rossmann. He said this, so that we (i changed my profile pic as well) know, that we are not alone, and see how many of us there are. Obviously if we dont do anything else, this clippy thing wont do anything.
Cool.
the tech giants will feel really bad and stop harvesting our data
That’s not what changing your profile picture is meant to do, nobody (as far as I’m aware) is claiming that’s the goal. The goal is to get people wondering why others have a Clippy profile picture, then they might search it up and learn about consumer rights and enshittification.
It’s a symbol, it’s easily recognizable for it’s simplicity and only aim to help.
It helps us feel less alone and to find the resolve to fight togheter.
Y’all just love to feel miserable don’t you?
I don’t even use computers.
That’s just it, kid: you’re in one.
Everything’s computer!
(Some pedophile)
How can you stand to lie to yourself about reality, which is miserable?
I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t face reality and instead pretended I didn’t see what was in front of my eyes
It is just homemade Reddit after all.
not really. meaningless acts like this only serve to satisfy people enough that they don’t feel the need to do something more meaningful. a protest that doesn’t inconvenient anyone is not a protest. it’s compliance with an asterisk.
meaningless acts like this only serve to satisfy people enough that they don’t feel the need to do something more meaningful
someone who is satisfied by doing a “meaningless act” wouldn’t do something more direct either way.
This is not a protest, this is a rally to arms, misery doesn’t motivate change
- Step 1: Change your profile picture
- Step 2: ???
- Step 3: Surveillance Capitalism is defeated
I’m sorry, next time we start a movement we’ll be sure to send you a detailed plan step by step dumb proof, sorry for trying to get people onto even acknowledging an issue and making people realise that they are not alone
Thank you, that would be a good step in the right direction so we can coordinate together.
BTW, I think it’s more of a call to arms to boycott companies that follow these practices, as a step one. Other steps might be more similar to how one fights fascist regimes.
Are you not familiar with Louis Rossman? I think this “change your pfp to clippy” thing is dumb as hell too, and I’m upset that this is the thing from him that broke into the “mainstream”.
He’s been championing right to repair, boycotting shit companies, documenting corporate bait and switches for years. He started and runs consumerrights.wiki, to document companies pulling shit like pushing out an update to smart TVs that blocks you from continuing to use them unless you agree to let them harvest your data. And ways to work around it. Trying to hold these fuckers accountable.
Only a few weeks ago he put up a $5000 bounty for anyone that could jailbreak a specific smarthome product that is trying to get owners to now pay $100 a year to keep running.
Again, I loathe this clippy bullshit, but “it’s not enough” applies to the people doing it, not the guy who started it. There is a movement, this is just so far the only part of it to hit mainstream.
Louis Rossman’s cool, pure virtue signaling is less so.
if us lefties could only jump over the hurdle of choosing the exact flavour before doing anything. there are more than enough people on the left side of the middle to achieve real change. but we are too caught up fighting minor differences.
fasci, on the other hand, need nothing in common, except an indistinct hatred for random people. the german fascists didn’t like religion at all, but officially worked with the christian church. still they rallied behind a religious symbol and would have died holding it up…
meanwhile we are arguing if even having a symbol is worthwhile
Somebody in the MS marketing department: ‘Everyone hates clippy. What can we do about this?’
‘Paste a couple gifs of a CGI dog on top of it?’
‘Genius! Let’s go to our two week lunch!’
30 years later:
'Everyone hates us. What can we do about this?’‘Make it fashionable for people born in 2003 to pretend to be nostalgic for Clippy?’
How long until there is a Clippy Fortnite skin?
alt text
“On the smartphone screen, a TikTok video from Fortnite is displayed. A character in a Microsoft Clippy skin is dancing energetically. Beside Him, another player, in a the skin of a distinctive, older man with a beard and a blue suit, is also dancing. The background is vibrant and colorful, typical of a Fortnite environment. The characters are moving rhythmically to the music, creating a lively and entertaining scene.”
I had a clippy skin for quake 3! It didn’t take long for it to be banned at LAN’s
‘I see you’re having trouble rocket jumping! Would you like some help?’
‘Goddamnit Kyle, shut up!’
It’s like you were in the room. Haha
It started from right to repair advocate Louis Rossman. If MS has got their claws in him the right to repair movement has just stalled out.
It’s not really necessary to get their claws in him; the more this trend gains attention, the less nuanced and directed the trajectory will become. Microsoft is much more equipped to algorithmically control the trajectory than what’s-his-name, so they will.
If they’re not too distracted with providing warfighting capabilities to our boys here and abroad.
It was kinda hilarious that when you disabled the Windows XP file search dog there was actually an animation of him sadly walking away.
So… where can we buy this in sticker form?
‘Looks like you could use some help investing in crypto! Let me help, but you should have a solid investment in a couple tech stocks first…’
“Clippy sucked and everyone hated it but tech giants currently do mych more and nobody complains.”
The teeth are terrifying lol
They certainly knew how to collect it back then. They just didn’t yet have anyone willing to buy it from them.
If it’s 97, there’s a good chance the computer doesn’t even have an internet connection.
And even if it did, it wasn’t always connected when running.
God damn do I miss dialup. It was great for avoiding all contact with people.
you have been putting out gold the past few days, love that clippy has teeth but hes talking out of his eyes
I didn’t think I’d get a chance to use this again.
