On youtube I see tons of avatars and mentions of clippy, the oldscool windows help tool. Are they protesting something?

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[–] 21 points 11 months ago (6 children)
  • [–] 40 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    It's being used as a symbol against corporate greed

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  • [–] 35 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Which is super ironic because it’s a corporate mascot that managed to become universally hated by everyone. Then again, those were simpler times, so modern companies would deserve much more than mere hatred.

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  • [–] 68 points 11 months ago* (2 children)

    The irony is part of it, from what I can tell.

    That Clippy, the universally hated useless feature, is still less shitty than what these companies are doing today.

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  • [–] 16 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    You could actually turn Clippy off as well. Copilot doesn’t really go away, and you can’t trust Microshaft to re-enable via updates. Out of the two I’d much prefer the maligned Clippy.

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  • [–] [S] 30 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Some teenage girl deleted a picture of herself on facebook and facebook marked her to sell beauty products to, because she must be insecure and therefor an easy target. Clippy never did that. Clippy was just there to help and had no ulterior motives. Every big company in the world has ulterior motives now. The clippys are meant to show them it's been enough.

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  • [–] 11 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    the big companies have always had 'ulterior motives' driven by their insatiable lust for more profits and higher share prices.

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  • [–] [S] 11 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    That is not true. The cycle is that someone with passion for the business creates the business and they are a good business. Than they grow and the creator can't handle it anymore, because they are craftsmen, not business men. Than some business men step in and eshittify everything for profit.

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  • [–] 13 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    clippy is now a right-to-repair icon. the idea is that if lots of ppl change their YT profile pic to clippy, people in power will feel threatened and cave in. or maybe corporations will see theres a market there and make repairable devices.

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  • [–] 11 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    the idea is that if lots of ppl change their YT profile pic to clippy, people in power will feel threatened and cave in.

    It can't be that stupid...

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  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    There's a second, very important part to it. Sure, you can just change your profile picture to a Clippy in solidarity with the movement, but it's supposed to mean that you WILL fight back against anti-consumer business practices in your life, especially if you work for a company that uses such practices.

    If your boss wants you to implement something that benefits the company over the consumer (or the employees), you stall. You find problems. You work as slow as humanly possible. You work on other things first. etc. You'll be as annoying as Clippy, perhaps.

    As a consumer, you won't buy that device that requires Internet for no other reason than the manufacturer reserves the right to brick it at their pleasure. You won't sign up for subscription services that should be one-and-done purchases, etc.

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago*

    As I understood it, the message was more about that if you want to start a grassroot movement, people need to see they're not alone, that there are others out there who feel the same. Make clippy your profile Pic and see it pop up everywhere. Power through mass. Treating the status quo then comes naturally ;)

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  • [–] -3 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    It's an eight-minute video (and it's Louis Rossman, so there's about fifteen minutes of dialogue in it -- highly efficient!)

    Not to be rude, but you can afford to make time to watch the whole thing.

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  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Imagine asking a question and someone handing you 12 page essay and telling you to read it

    That's what replying with a link to an 8-minute video is like lol

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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    I've read lengthy articles posted in response to questions before. Just depends on the complexity of the topic and whether I'm actually interested. Weird objection to have IMO.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    Right, because you know going in that you're interested. Neither of you provided a description to let OP know if they're even interested before they commit 8 minutes to a video that may or may not answer the question

    It's not a huge deal or anything, your "not to be rude" line just made me laugh. I was at work and definitely could not afford the time

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    No, I can't.

    I refuse to waste 8 minutes listening to someone when I could read it in 2.

    I don't watch fucking videos.

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