Clippy Campaign: Difference between revisions
NotARobot06 (talk | contribs) Change how it works section; some of it was irrelevant, and had an unsuitable tone imo. Clarify that the movement isn't about "sunken cost" but mainly about visibility, which is a prerequisite for action (as Rossman himself says). |
NotARobot06 (talk | contribs) no source for Clippy being "widely mocked", so removed section and wrote it in a more neutral tone (retaining original quotation from video) |
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===Clippy As a Symbol of Escalating Overreach=== | ===Clippy As a Symbol of Escalating Overreach=== | ||
Rossman uses Clippy to show how technology used to work purely for its intended purpose, in contrast to [[Dark pattern|dark patterns]] that are now widespread. | |||
[https://youtu.be/2_Dtmpe9qaQ?t=68 Change your profile picture to clippy. I'm serious 1:08]<blockquote>Whether or not you like Clippy, [...] the one thing that you could say, unlike Facebook who is trying to profit off of young girls that feel suicidal, Clippy simply wanted to help. | [https://youtu.be/2_Dtmpe9qaQ?t=68 Change your profile picture to clippy. I'm serious 1:08]<blockquote>Whether or not you like Clippy, [...] the one thing that you could say, unlike Facebook who is trying to profit off of young girls that feel suicidal, Clippy simply wanted to help. | ||
He might have been annoying, but he just wanted to help. | He might have been annoying, but he just wanted to help. | ||
Revision as of 09:58, 18 August 2025
The Clippy Campaign (Author's Note: tentatively named, there seems to be no agreed upon name for this concept yet) is a solidarity visibility campaign where individuals change their profile image to "a Clippy" (officially, the 'Clippit' avatar of Office Assistant as seen in Microsoft Office 2000 through 2003).
The campaign was started by Louis Rossmann in his video Change your profile picture to clippy. I'm serious and further explained in his video You Changed Your Profile to Clippy: Now What? 📎📎📎
How it Works
Individuals supporting Right to Repair or generally supporting resistance to anti-ownership activities show their size as a group and solidarity with each other by changing their profile images to a Clippy.
While the individual action itself may not change much, it’s a simple task that gets users invested in the movement, and creates visibility for the movement. More visibility encourages people who are capable of making a more tangible change to do so, and informs people unfamiliar with the movement of it. The end goal isn't just to change profile pictures, the visiblity it grants is simply a prerequisite for widespread societal change to occur.
Why Clippy
Clippy As a Symbol of Escalating Overreach
Rossman uses Clippy to show how technology used to work purely for its intended purpose, in contrast to dark patterns that are now widespread.
Change your profile picture to clippy. I'm serious 1:08
Whether or not you like Clippy, [...] the one thing that you could say, unlike Facebook who is trying to profit off of young girls that feel suicidal, Clippy simply wanted to help.
He might have been annoying, but he just wanted to help.
There were no ulterior motives. If you told Clippy you were having a bad day, he wasn't going to use that information to try and figure out which advertiser to sell you to. Nor was he trying to steal your personal data to get you to purchase other Microsoft products. He had no ulterior motives, he was simply there to help.
[...]
Clippy wouldn't even read the contents of your letter.
The Impact of Clippy Avatars
Rossman hopes that the group awareness created by the campaign will allow people to take action more quickly, due to already knowing that others around them are in alignment. Already it has been seen that many users on YouTube and other social media sites have taken part in the campaign. Some are even taking action to further spread word of the movement in hopes it will eventually get the attention of legislation, tech companies, etc.
You Changed Your Profile to Clippy: Now What? 📎📎📎 4:25
But if all of them know at the same time that we're on the same page:
We are tired of living in an anti-ownership society, check.
We are tired of living in a society where we subscribe to everything and we own nothing, check.
We are tired of being told it cost $8,000 to fix a f[---]ing power button, check.
[...]
If every single one of these people were not only on the same page, but knew they were on the same page, maybe each one in the chain would speak up when they otherwise wouldn't.
And when they're all moving together and all working together, what happens?
They choose a different vendor.
Within one week, there has already been visible progress due to this movement; namely an increase in edits to consumerrights.wiki.
Progress of clippy movement one week in 1:06
We have something called plausible. It's GDPR privacy perserving analytics
[...]
You can see this jump (around 11 Aug) [...] also coincides with many articles that were incomplete being edited to the point of being perfect
As well as tangible progress outside of this wiki; the point of the movement is to encourage changes in individual lives so that these small changes accumulate: Progress of clippy movement one week in 1:56
And I'm very excited not just by this, but by all of the emails that I've received from you where you've told me in your own personal life where you made a different decision to try and make a difference.
Slogan
Clippy just wanted to help.
Clippy Images
-
A CC-0 (public domain) 3D model based on Clippy -
The OG clippy render -
Someone's custom clippy render -
Clippy render against a blue background
