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Literally everyone hated Clippy. It was an absolute mockery of a useful assistant or feature, and at the time everyone detested Microsoft. I think this post is

Literally everyone hated Clippy. It was an absolute mockery of a useful assistant or feature, and at the time everyone detested Microsoft. I think this post is satire.

o11c 10mo ago
Clippy really ... wasn't bad? It mostly stayed out of your way, occasionally showed a button to perform a useful task, and could interact with the help system without having to click through 3 menus. It wasn't a panacea but it was at least positive-value, unlike most current AI.
- brokensegue 10mo ago
  I never got value from him
  - Barbing 10mo ago
    May have forgotten to change the avatar to the wizard
- parpfish 10mo ago
  the meme of "omg, clippy sucked and was sooo annoying" has overshadowed the actual level of annoyance from back in the day. nobody used clippy, but nobody expressed vitriol. you just easily dismissed it and went on with your business.
- gitaarik 10mo ago
  I guess his appearance appeals to SOME people..
rijoja 10mo ago
yes obviously it's clippy because everyone hated clippy that is the point the idea is that when your CEO goes on slack or teams or whatever and see 100 clippies they'll be "oh wow, nobody likes how we earn our dollar." or the very least people who are concerned about surveillance will know who is on their team! so just do it I'm serious
Tempest1981 10mo ago
I think we have our hacker/power-user blinders on. It was cool to hate Clippy. But many non-tech-savvy users felt differently, and were accepting of the attempt to provide help.
- parpfish 10mo ago
  what if clippy's true purpose was sales/marketing and not productivity? back in the day people needed to be convinced that they needed a computer and that they'd be able to figure it out. if you see clippy on a showroom floor or on your friends pc, you might think "oh yeah, i suppose I could use a computer to do that!".
  - Anamon 10mo ago
    Is it really a contradiction? Convincing people they maybe should get a computer worked much better if they saw that it might increase their productivity. Techy folks all already had one back then, and Clippy was aimed at those still writing their correspondence on a typewriter. I have no doubt that switching to a computer was productive for them, even if it increased Microsoft sales in the process.
ashirviskas 10mo ago
Maybe it's the generation gap? As a kid, I loved that I could "play" on the PC with Clippy, which mostly consisted on trying it to appear and make it do something. I get that if you were trying to get some work done, it might have been annoying.

Literally everyone hated Clippy. It was an absolute mockery of a useful assistant or feature, and at the time everyone detested Microsoft. I think this post is satire.

o11c 10mo ago

Clippy really ... wasn't bad? It mostly stayed out of your way, occasionally showed a button to perform a useful task, and could interact with the help system without having to click through 3 menus. It wasn't a panacea but it was at least positive-value, unlike most current AI.

brokensegue 10mo ago
I never got value from him
- Barbing 10mo ago
  May have forgotten to change the avatar to the wizard
parpfish 10mo ago
the meme of "omg, clippy sucked and was sooo annoying" has overshadowed the actual level of annoyance from back in the day. nobody used clippy, but nobody expressed vitriol. you just easily dismissed it and went on with your business.
gitaarik 10mo ago
I guess his appearance appeals to SOME people..

rijoja 10mo ago

yes obviously it's clippy because everyone hated clippy that is the point the idea is that when your CEO goes on slack or teams or whatever and see 100 clippies they'll be "oh wow, nobody likes how we earn our dollar." or the very least people who are concerned about surveillance will know who is on their team! so just do it I'm serious

Tempest1981 10mo ago

I think we have our hacker/power-user blinders on. It was cool to hate Clippy. But many non-tech-savvy users felt differently, and were accepting of the attempt to provide help.

parpfish 10mo ago
what if clippy's true purpose was sales/marketing and not productivity? back in the day people needed to be convinced that they needed a computer and that they'd be able to figure it out. if you see clippy on a showroom floor or on your friends pc, you might think "oh yeah, i suppose I could use a computer to do that!".
- Anamon 10mo ago
  Is it really a contradiction? Convincing people they maybe should get a computer worked much better if they saw that it might increase their productivity. Techy folks all already had one back then, and Clippy was aimed at those still writing their correspondence on a typewriter. I have no doubt that switching to a computer was productive for them, even if it increased Microsoft sales in the process.

ashirviskas 10mo ago

Maybe it's the generation gap? As a kid, I loved that I could "play" on the PC with Clippy, which mostly consisted on trying it to appear and make it do something. I get that if you were trying to get some work done, it might have been annoying.