This community usually discusses consumer rights, but nobody is discussing this initiative. Is it maybe cuz Lemmy’s majority ain’t American?
Changing your profile picture to Clippy to me seems the same as boomers posting “I DO NOT GIVE PERMISSION TO FACEBOOK”.
Just delete your account and stop using it.
I’ve seen this posted before, so it’s definitely been discussed on Lemmy before. Reading the comments back then is much like reading the comments here, Clippy does not really seem fit as a corporation fighting symbol and frankly changing your pfp will most likely have no impact to Youtubes management. Why not simply go for a Reddit blackout kind of protest where everyone switches all their videos to unlisted or blocking monetization on their videos (if that is possible)? That will surely get the attention of Youtube.
The goal is to show each other we are many. He explained it in another video, the clippy movement actually had an impact. This is simply the first step for organising as a group around a shared idea: using a common symbol. It doesn’t matter what the symbol is, as long as we recognize each other using it.
Why not simply go for a Reddit blackout
Well the whole reddit thing was just a bunch of volunteer mods. On the other hand, many YouTubers make a career out of the platform. Considering their livelihoods are at stake, and the vast number of YouTubers you would need to get on board to make google actually care? Organizing such a thing would be anything but simple.
Also the Reddit blackout did nothing. So I’m not why that’s your reference point. Charging pfp would achieve exactly the same. Nothing.
Americans love their nothing burger demonstrations.
The reddit blackout got me off reddit. Well, that and reddit getting rid of third party apps and enshitifying the platform
I think the Reddit blackout did a lot, just not everything. I’m here on Lemmy because of it. Granted I’m still on Reddit as well, and Mastodon, and Xitter…
Just keep plugging along, and every little bit helps.
I’ve been out touching grass, what’s all this about?
Clippy is becoming a shared symbol. The idea it represents is that: we are not happy with the way companies lock us out of our own devices. We want to be allowed to do whatever we want with the hardware we bought. We want to be able to repair it. We want privacy when using it… Etc…
What motivated the choice of Clippy as a symbol? Meme value?
Kinda, but also that Clippy (real name Clippit, as it happens) was included as a feature that was genuinely intended to be helpful. Like, that’s not to say it was successful, or appreciated, but that it came from a time when you could buy a product in the expectation that you’d own it, you could keep it and it’d work for you, not for someone else.
lazy copy of my comment in another thread:
here, the video which started all: https://odysee.com/@rossmanngroup:a/change-your-profile-picture-to-clippy.:e
and where he goes a bit more into detail and talks about many of the points seen in this thread: https://odysee.com/@rossmanngroup:a/you-changed-your-profile-to-clippy-now:6
I would but I don’t have a youtube account
hhh chad
Those businesses give no flying fucks about signals you’re angry; they only care about money. So unless you use the Clippy avatars to mobilise people and to hurt those businesses’ revenues, it’ll do nothing.
(For YouTube, this means to stop or at least reduce platform usage. After all its revenue comes from ads.)
Where’s that mobilisation? *cricket noises*
Y know this comment section-and every other i see when this vid comes up- is a perfect illustration of why the left always loses. We would rather criticize everything/anything than DO anything. Who fucking CARES if they care, if the notice, if it matters or affects anything??? Who fucking CARES who/what the mascot is??? The message is something im reasonably sure 99.99 percent of usernames in this particular commie off brand reddit corner of the internet AGREE WITH. Yet. We sit here shouting at each other and arguing over each fucking comment, nuance and semantic instead of doing even the tiniest, most trivial resistance… this more than anything is why the left is so useless and despicable, as a movement. Theyre too busy shooting each other in the feet to notice the race is already over. MORONS.
There’s a lesson I learnt from playing team games: If your teammate makes a bad call that you disagree with, you should still follow them 100%. Going all-in on a questionable decision is almost always better than second guessing each other.
I think it applies here, and it’s why right wingers and religions are so effective. They don’t care if their arguments are flawed or their leader is a rapist, they’re jumping into that fight every time.
Not an online gamer, but I heard a similar sentiment from a boss about 20 years ago. He told me “if you make a mistake one time, I got your back, but we’ll speak in private and I’ll counsel you. Make the mistake again, I’ll let my pen do the talking. Make it a third time, you’re off the team.”
It escalates quickly, but his management style helped us learn from the mistakes. Sometimes the second time happened. But everyone was willing to go to war with this guy. I mean, proverbially. This was also a guy who would bring his grill to work and cook for everyone one weekend a month. Companies that say you’re family, big red flag. A boss who walks the walk as well as talks the talk? Huge green flag.
I agree with your sentiment, but calling people morons isn’t going to win anybody over to your side
I think Clippy is the wrong icon for this. Microsoft Bob would have been better and it predated Clippy by a few years.! .
It’s not as recognizable though.
actually I recognize this one more. I only know about clippy from retro computing videos, but I remember this dog and that sorcerer clearly when searching stuff (now that I mention it, Windows’ search sucks nonetheless)
From the same business geniuses that though that having you pay a fee to be allowed to pick a seat next to your other family members in an airplane was a good idea…
looks like shit no thanks
No, I don’t wanna be associated with that guy.
I had never heard of him before. What’s his deal?
Nothing stands out very far regarding the negatives. I could speculate to a few things, though. He’s not a Socialist. When the going got tough for him and his business he uprooted and moved out of NYC to Texas. I can’t really think of anything else objectionable. I actually like him, though so I may be biased.
For the positives, he’s helped drive a lot of the Right to Repair legislation in this country as he’s reported a lot of discussions he’s had with real legislators. He runs a website for mac product repair as a reference that also operates as a non-profit. He runs a daytime business repairing mac products that employs several other people. Generally he posts a lot to keep people up to date increasingly as an electronics-oriented influencer, but he used to post mac repair videos almost exclusively and he talked about having to navigate Apple’s influence on regulating the second-hand market. He has also given platform to a number of other mac & electronic repair people.
To me he seems to talk-the-talk and walk-the-walk when it comes to Right to Repair, but like I said, I might be biased.
Overall what he promotes/fights for are good things. But in short what I don’t like about him is:
- he believes to be the morals authority
- the standards he is advocating for don’t apply to him (for example fighting for open source just to release an app which isn’t open source)
I can count the amount of fucks any tech giant gives about Clippy avatars on a snake’s hands.
On the other hand, seeing this symbol more and more on other random videos outside that bubble does give a very nice sense of “I am not alone”. It does more for users to find eachother than it does damage to big corpos.
But choice of the symbol itself is questionable… Why use a big tech symbol to protest big tech? -__- And not just any big tech, but super evil 90s monopolistic giant Microsoft
There’s a nice cartoon in this thread we’re clippy is if he could have, he would have harvest all your data.
we know we are not alone because here we are.
i don’t need a boost to my ego or hopium, i need solutions. which well, here we are.
Come on. Changing an avatar picture has never achieved anything. On top of that, changing to a corporate mascot to fight corporate greed….give me a break. There are better actions to take like being on fediverse instead of Reddit or other social media platforms or using libre office. I get the rant but an avatar change doesn’t mean anything.
It’s mostly idiots who want to be part of something and some that “don’t like” what is happening and “want” change but put in the least possible amount of effort pathetically to attempt to cause a change, and this only when someone popular suggests.
They never really want to stop using the product. It’s like drug addicts trying to make drugs less addicting by “protesting” against the very thing they use (and will keep using) literally everyday.
Personally, I have more of a “I’m not alone” feeling when I actively leave services that I disagree with and through word of mouth find alternatives where I can talk to people who seem to have the same base values I do. Even if we disagree on other things.
It’s the laziness of this initiative that drives me up a wall. People want change but they don’t want to work for or sacrifice anything for it.
we can argue about the choice of symbol until the world ends. the symbol is just a thing people can recognise and rally around.
the first step of any movement is to gather people. then do something. so yes, changing a picture is lazy, but it is a virtual rally point. he talks about next steps in another video: https://odysee.com/@rossmanngroup:a/you-changed-your-profile-to-clippy-now:6
Good on him that he’s actually planning on doing something more than just have ppl change their avatar. Maybe he should have put that in the original video instead of getting mad that people are calling him out for slacktivism.
Also, I have not argued the choice of symbol at any point. I don’t care what image people put as their profile pic. What I was arguing was that it is weak to change your profile pic for a cause if you then keep using the products you’re protesting against.
If he and the people joining his movement actually manage to make positive change, then I’m all for it. It just wasn’t clear in his first video that he had ambitions to actively have laws changed. It sounded like he wanted people to change their pics that that would somehow make everybody rebel against their corporate overlords. If he didn’t want people to think that was his movement, he should have elaborated in the same video instead of playing coy and splitting it up into two videos where he gets to call the critics of his movement apathetic idiots.
Good luck to him and those who join the movement. I hope they manage to make some changes.
sometimes you don’t have to (or can’t) have a full plan A-Z. Sometimes you just have to start somewhere - usually with gathering ppl. euromaidan is a great example of that.
but yes, louis could have put more concrete plans in his first video. as he has them. on the other hand he probably throws many things and sees what sticks. i guess that is what you have to do, if you try to change legislation against corpos with much more everything than you.
And that is fair. If he’s the type to throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks before he goes into making more detailed plans, then cool. But him sitting and getting pissy about people who criticized him and calling them names is a very unselfaware move. Of he’s a throw shit at the wall guy, he has to deal with the fact that people can’t read his mind and that he will have to clarify like an adult and talk to his critics with respect. If he can’t handle valid criticism to his poorly communicated video, he should probably change tactics and not be a throw shit at the wall guy anymore.
Again, I wish him the best of luck with his movement as he seems to have the drive to actually getting things done. I just don’t respect his attitude about the criticism he received.
I agree with you
It’s a good thing that’s not what it’s about then. It’s about showing the size of the community, and knowing that there are other people like you that care, and thus you will be more likely to actually do something.
Had me in the first half, but I don’t see any clippys doing much of anything but ishposting
Thank you. I needed that chuckle 😂❤️
I’m not changing my PFP to a Microsoft product in hopes Microsoft stops fucking people. Slackativism is cringe.
I just move away to freedom respecting tech and talk about it with the people around me.
I don’t get it. I really don’t. Why should I brand myself with a Microsoft mascot? This is the most stupid idea they ever had.
Louis does sniff his own farts a lot.
wait hold on, i know those eyes. was this made by the surreal unix guy?
niiice, i fucking love this guy’s artstyle
Yeah, from this post a week ago.
oh shit
Yeah, but he can’t. That’s the point.
That is a deeply unserious point
What do you mean?
Someone (well, something) who doesn’t violate you because he can’t, not because he wouldn’t, is not a good example.
Like, Thomas Edison didn’t sell me out using his light bulb. Not because he was a good person, because he physically couldn’t. If he were alive today he absolutely would.
Software should have the least permissions posible for the task, that is why it is important the “cant”.
So going on an ads platform to put the icon of a corporation to claim that this is helping? I’m really having hard times to understand the logic.
No, it won‘t. What this does is helping you take action and fight against it, knowing you are not alone. It really gives you moral support when seeing clippy on other youtube videos making you feel there are many of you who do not tolerate the bullshit.
So using a Microsoft product to fight against corporate’s greed like Microsoft. Just use libre office or any alternative instead of “changing picture” on ads platforms.
Just watch the video, he explains why. Don‘t hate on the initiative, he is on your side and tries to change things for the better.
And to continue my reply to your other comment, using libre office or an alternative won’t have that rallying cry effect, since you’re doing it on your own.
It sounds dumb but many people won’t do what they believe is right if they’re alone and if the alternative is easier.
It’s purely to make people feel better about themselves
Try to forget about the weird mascot choice. It’s just a rallying cry.
I also don’t really get why the clippy and he probably could have picked a better avatar for people to use.
The point is (I think) that people who know what it’s about will feel the support of all these strangers sharing their view, and people who don’t know might look it up and get sensibilized to the cause.
Come on the video is monetized. Next week that dude will say jump and you jump? Enough with TikToker.
Just trying to help you understand the logic since you’re having a hard time. Starting to think you’re not trying at all… Remember understanding and agreeing aren’t the same thing.
How do you know the video is monetized? Just because it has advertisements does not mean he gets a cent.
Clippy is such a stupid mascot for this “movement”.
how so? I think it’s absolutely perfect that what was once emblematic of corporate overreach into our lives would be welcomed as preferable to the current state of affairs. Clippy didn’t want to sell your data to bounty hunters, he just wanted to help.
He absolutely would have sold your data if there were any buyers for it. Microsoft was still a terrible company in the Clippy era, there just were fewer opportunities to be terrible in this particular way at the time.
Clippy is Microsoft!! So you are using a Microsoft product to fight against Microsoft? Just use libre office or other tool set instead.
well the last thing I’d want to do is infringe Microsoft’s IP … what is the FOSS alternative to Clippy?
I mean, Tux is right there.
didn’t know people hated Tux but whatever
What? Who hates Tux?
you said it not me
Clippy symbolizes the attachment our generation has to the old state of software:
- you bought it? Then it runs offline for sure!
- nothing runs on background, except if you turn it on (Yes I never turned on Windows default protection on Win xp or win 7
- You bought? You own it, you format it, you don’t pay for subscription, and there is practically nothing stopping you from modifying it if you go hacker.
On top of that Clippy looks cute. Personally I’m not participating in the movement since I’m not American, but imo the choice does make sense.
While I’m typing from Ubuntu, I only switched to Linux cuz I can’t get back to the old state of win xp or win 7 that was perfect imo. While some are trying to convert people into Linux, others are trying to restore the corporate business to the old acceptable state.
Neither will succeed alone, and in fact those companies are using resources of your country to produce this shit, so it makes sense that you demand it to not suck that hard.That is nostalgia talking. Microsoft was evil at that time. I will rather that the tiktoker use his monetized video to talk about Linux. He is creating a false movement just for money and eye ball purpose. Be real.
I thought atleast this initiative looks interesting: https://consumerrights.wiki/Main_Page . But, yeah you’re right I prefer boycotting Microsoft cuz they’re more evil than ever: https://inv.nadeko.net/embed/7BoTBy1aHVM?
