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I remember the hate well. Clippy was this obnoxious know it all who did shit like lean in and wave his eyebrows at you tapping on the monitor glass condescendin

I remember the hate well. Clippy was this obnoxious know it all who did shit like lean in and wave his eyebrows at you tapping on the monitor glass condescendingly asking QUESTION after QUESTION when you were trying to do stuff like focusing on writing your dissertation or important TPS reports for the boss. It was so annoying. It even made noises. [1] I think it was appealing in a cartoony 90's kind of way for maybe 10 minutes for anyone who liked that kind of thing, but if you had to sit down and use this program for hours until you were done this character was the worst. Good thing you could turn it off, I remember a ton of people asking me how to do that back in the day. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G_uCbKoG5A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G_uCbKoG5A

xattt 4y ago
Grade 4 me thought Clippy was neat. I also like that you could change characters.
- jamal-kumar 4y ago
  If you had shit to do, Clippy was the digital equivalent of some annoying pest of a person throwing out random numbers when you're trying to count cash. If that's not enough, he specifically creeped women out according to that article: Generally, Atteberry’s character tested well in focus groups—the best of any assistant in some cases. Yet its massive eyes could be buggy. Some women in the cohorts deemed Clippy a man, and the constant male gaze creepy. “There were comments about how Clippy was leering,” says Roz Ho, who worked in product planning for the PowerPoint team then. When Ho raised that concern, she says the men in the room—everyone else, basically—couldn’t process it. “It really wasn’t about, like, these guys were bad guys, or anything. It was just they had a hard time picturing that feedback.”
  - DiggyJohnson 4y ago
    Of all the reasons to criticize Clippy, the notion of it evoking a sense of the “constant male gaze” is… something. Clippy didn’t have a gender, how could something like this possible be avoided? I’m asking with a bit of snark, but I’m genuinely open to a serious answer. I’m worried that the solution would just be an attempt at making the dialogue even more obtuse, or making the avatar overtly feminine.
    - picsao 4y ago
    - skhr0680 4y ago
      > how could something like this possible be avoided? Give up on trying to accommodate everyone. > making the avatar overtly feminine In the 90s, I spent plenty of time around the type of person who might see Clippy is a male predator, and they would certainly have had a problem with the assistant being feminine.
    - jamal-kumar 4y ago
      The way he moved his eyes was kinda like some tryhard at the bar with no game
      - DiggyJohnson 4y ago
        As a confident person with bad eye-contact tendencies I must admit I take a bit of personal offense at this, but, based on my opinions about taking offense: no action necessary.
        jamal-kumar 4y ago
        I mean just don't stare and make sure you keep it when you're communicating with someone. https://youtube.com/shorts/se33Fv_sEEA https://youtube.com/shorts/se33Fv_sEEA This guy gets it
  - DonHopkins 4y ago
    Clippy reminds me of how Malvin "Mister Potato Head" (played by Eddie Deezen) was annoying Jim Sting (played by Maury Chaykin) in War Games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfJJk7i0NTk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfJJk7i0NTk >Jim: "Remember you told me to tell you when you're acting rudely and insensitively? Remember that? You're doing it right now." The way Nero Wolfe (also played by Maury Chaykin) reacted to Timothy Quayle (played by Robert Bockstael) reminds me of how people reacted to Clippy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HszQwf_76w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HszQwf_76w >Nero: "Bah!" >Timothy: "Don't Bah me! I want to know what you're up to." >Nero: "This is ridiculous. I like eyes at a level. If you will only blather at me, Mister Goodwin will put you out. If you will take that chair, change your tone, and give me an acceptable reason why I should listen to you, I may listen!" >Timothy: "I know about you. I know how you operate. If you want to hook Missus Altos for some change, that's her business. But you're not going to drag Miss Hinkley into ..." >Nero: "Archie, Fritz will open the door." >Timothy: "Get your hands off me! Get your paws off of me! Awk! Aah!"
drc500free 4y ago
To me, Clippy represents designers' obsession with a cloyingly sweet First-Time User Experience that makes the product unusable if you actually retain the user. I think he lives on in "let's make the settings menu a text conversation with a chat bot!," unskippable cut scenes in games, and other overly cute ideas.

xattt 4y ago

Grade 4 me thought Clippy was neat. I also like that you could change characters.

jamal-kumar 4y ago
If you had shit to do, Clippy was the digital equivalent of some annoying pest of a person throwing out random numbers when you're trying to count cash. If that's not enough, he specifically creeped women out according to that article: Generally, Atteberry’s character tested well in focus groups—the best of any assistant in some cases. Yet its massive eyes could be buggy. Some women in the cohorts deemed Clippy a man, and the constant male gaze creepy. “There were comments about how Clippy was leering,” says Roz Ho, who worked in product planning for the PowerPoint team then. When Ho raised that concern, she says the men in the room—everyone else, basically—couldn’t process it. “It really wasn’t about, like, these guys were bad guys, or anything. It was just they had a hard time picturing that feedback.”
- DiggyJohnson 4y ago
  Of all the reasons to criticize Clippy, the notion of it evoking a sense of the “constant male gaze” is… something. Clippy didn’t have a gender, how could something like this possible be avoided? I’m asking with a bit of snark, but I’m genuinely open to a serious answer. I’m worried that the solution would just be an attempt at making the dialogue even more obtuse, or making the avatar overtly feminine.
  - picsao 4y ago
  - skhr0680 4y ago
    > how could something like this possible be avoided? Give up on trying to accommodate everyone. > making the avatar overtly feminine In the 90s, I spent plenty of time around the type of person who might see Clippy is a male predator, and they would certainly have had a problem with the assistant being feminine.
  - jamal-kumar 4y ago
    The way he moved his eyes was kinda like some tryhard at the bar with no game
    - DiggyJohnson 4y ago
      As a confident person with bad eye-contact tendencies I must admit I take a bit of personal offense at this, but, based on my opinions about taking offense: no action necessary.
      - jamal-kumar 4y ago
        I mean just don't stare and make sure you keep it when you're communicating with someone. https://youtube.com/shorts/se33Fv_sEEA https://youtube.com/shorts/se33Fv_sEEA This guy gets it
- DonHopkins 4y ago
  Clippy reminds me of how Malvin "Mister Potato Head" (played by Eddie Deezen) was annoying Jim Sting (played by Maury Chaykin) in War Games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfJJk7i0NTk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfJJk7i0NTk >Jim: "Remember you told me to tell you when you're acting rudely and insensitively? Remember that? You're doing it right now." The way Nero Wolfe (also played by Maury Chaykin) reacted to Timothy Quayle (played by Robert Bockstael) reminds me of how people reacted to Clippy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HszQwf_76w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HszQwf_76w >Nero: "Bah!" >Timothy: "Don't Bah me! I want to know what you're up to." >Nero: "This is ridiculous. I like eyes at a level. If you will only blather at me, Mister Goodwin will put you out. If you will take that chair, change your tone, and give me an acceptable reason why I should listen to you, I may listen!" >Timothy: "I know about you. I know how you operate. If you want to hook Missus Altos for some change, that's her business. But you're not going to drag Miss Hinkley into ..." >Nero: "Archie, Fritz will open the door." >Timothy: "Get your hands off me! Get your paws off of me! Awk! Aah!"

drc500free 4y ago

To me, Clippy represents designers' obsession with a cloyingly sweet First-Time User Experience that makes the product unusable if you actually retain the user. I think he lives on in "let's make the settings menu a text conversation with a chat bot!," unskippable cut scenes in games, and other overly cute ideas.