100th comment: Thank you for drawing, Mr. Clippy artist
Damn! I forgot a pen and now I have to memorize clippy's source code.
this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2025
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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'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.
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).
it looks like you're trying to invoke nostalgia for older days, do you want help with that?
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.
"Clippy sucked and everyone hated it but tech giants currently do mych more and nobody complains."
- If I knew it was lucrative to steal and sell your data. In clippy's era this was unheard of.
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)
It is just homemade Reddit after all.
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I'm reading 'The Circle' by Dave Eggers right now, and he totally foresaw all knowing corporative control back in the 2010s.
It is a tome at 500 pages, but a great read, so far.
Not gonna shit on Eggers or anything, but I don't think that concept was new in the 2010s.
Snow Crash is one that comes to mind right away, but I haven't read The Circle, so maybe I'm wrong about what you're referring to. I think William Gibson probably wrote about similar themes at some point as well.
If you haven't read Snow Crash, btw, you should. It's fucking awesome
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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!'
It was kinda hilarious that when you disabled the Windows XP file search dog there was actually an animation of him sadly walking away.
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?
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
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."
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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.
I didn't think I'd get a chance to use this again.
'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...'
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