Talk:Office Assistant/Archives/2023/November

Clippit vs. Clippy

The names Clippit and Clippy are used back and forth interchangeably in different parts of the article. Recommend choosing one to avoid confusion, leaving the notation in the opening section that "Clippy" is the popular moniker for what is officially called "Clippit". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.2.38.247 (talk) 03:26, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

Someone's changed it all back to "Clippy" despite the fact that his name in Office is, and has always been, Clippit. Finding search result links with other people who also get the name wrong doesn't change the factual truth. Matt-thepie (talk) 16:46, 29 January 2016 (UTC)

https://xkcd.com/978/

Relevant 108.60.63.241 (talk) 14:47, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

The paperclip-demon introduced itself as Clippy. This is how it's referred to just about everywhere else but this one page. That includes on this page claiming to be from the person who designed it, as well as Microsoft's more recent communications about it. None of the citations given for the name seem to back up "Clippit".

I'm really confused. Oolong (talk) 13:13, 23 July 2023 (UTC)

Here are two official communications from Microsoft that refer to it as Clippy. So far I've come up short hunting for one that confirms its real name is secretly Clippit.

2001 announcement of its retirement: https://news.microsoft.com/2001/04/11/farewell-clippy-whats-happening-to-the-infamous-office-assistant-in-office-xp/

2021 announcement of its partial resurrection:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2021/07/08/get-nostalgic-with-new-microsoft-teams-backgrounds/ Oolong (talk) 13:29, 23 July 2023 (UTC)

I just checked through every citation in the article and found only one that used "Clippit". Unless anyone comes up with some drastic new evidence, I'll rewrite the article soon to use Clippy (with a proportionate mention of the occasional use of Clippit). Averixus (talk) 21:13, 23 July 2023 (UTC)

Good find on the reference, though I still agree with the rewrite as Wikipedia uses common name and Microsoft itself is using Clippy. In rewriting, there is also the opportunity to better distinguish between the avatar and the assistant; Clippy is only the default avatar of the Office Assistant. While Clippy has broader recognition and cultural impact, it is only a subtopic of the Office Assistant. —Ost (talk) 18:46, 24 July 2023 (UTC)

I've gone ahead with the name change throughout the article (although I haven't done any other restructuring). Averixus (talk) 19:08, 24 July 2023 (UTC)

I had Microsoft Office in 1998, in which the character was called "Clippit". If you look through the references for this article, you will see that many of them note this.

• https://www.ibtimes.com/clippy-lives-microsoft-revives-personal-assistance-office-2016-tell-me-feature-1994158 — The paperclip balancing on a sheet of paper, officially named "Clippit,"
• https://web.archive.org/web/20070212204645/http://lis.dickinson.edu/Technology/Training/Tutorials/MsOffice/assistant.htm — Clippit, the default Office Assistant,
• https://futurism.com/the-byte/microsoft-clippy-back-ai The former Microsoft Office mascot — technically named Clippit, though pretty much everyone calls him Clippy
• https://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-city-life/2022/08/origin-story-of-clippy-the-microsoft-office-assistant ut nearly three decades after its genesis at the Redmond tech giant, Clippit—better known as Clippy—improbably lives on.
• http://xenon.stanford.edu/~lswartz/paperclip/paperclip.pdf (reference one) cites the actual name as "Clippit" when it introduces the character on page 3 and later on page 22: Popularly known as “Clippy the Paperclip” (the default character, referred to in Microsoft Office itself as “Clippit”),

If you read through these articles, you will see that many of them note that the actual name of the Assistant was "Clippit" for at least the first twenty-some years of its existence. It seems unlikely that everyone had a mass collective delusion that Clippy was called "Clippit" for this whole time. It does indeed seem to be the case that Microsoft changed the name of the Assistant in later marketing materials, but this is something that should be noted in the article, and not retroactively imposed on on the last. I am reverting this edit. jp×g 08:35, 4 August 2023 (UTC)

Good find on those sources. It's still clear that 'Clippy' is the overwhelmingly most-used name today. So as per WP:OFFICIALNAMES, that should be the one used for the article. But it would definitely improve the article if you were to add those sources and an explanatory section about the history of the names. Averixus (talk) 19:15, 4 August 2023 (UTC)

On closer inspection I think it's likely some of those sources are examples of "citogenesis", since they all post-date the time that this wikipedia article said the official name was Clippit. In any case, Clippy is the common name and the one we should use. If we're going to add a section explaining the naming history, we should focus on archive sources that are definitely old enough not to be citing this article. Averixus (talk) 19:21, 4 August 2023 (UTC)

This is not true. I would recommend you read what I'm citing -- the last source (the Xenon link), which has been in this article for years, is basically a complete monograph on this character, and it was published in 2003. This article was created in January 2004. Moreover, the sources I give here are almost all from the article, and have been in it for years: they give the correct name in the body text, just not the headlines. jp×g 20:10, 4 August 2023 (UTC)

JPxG is correct. This is not citogenesis. "Clippit" was always the official name, and it didn't start being called "Clippy" until the Microsoft campaigns in later years about how everyone hated Clippy. Andre🚐 20:36, 4 August 2023 (UTC)

All the pre-2003 references I've been able to find call it Clippy, not Clippit - including screenshots of the software, on which Clippy introduces itself as Clippy.

Please let us know if you find anything solid to contradict this. So far we only seem to have one (unofficial and uncited) source for 'Clippit' that is slightly older than this entry (which goes back to 2004).

Thanks! Oolong (talk) 11:01, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

You seem to be mistaken, and I would advise that you consider the sources more carefully. The software never introduced him as "Clippy." Andre🚐 15:32, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

There was never a version of Microsoft Office in which he was called “Clippy,” and he never introduced himself as such. 68.20.25.90 (talk) 08:43, 17 November 2023 (UTC)

My mistake, I had searched the article citations looking for uses of "Clippit" before but must have missed the ones you pointed out. In any case, by far the most commonly used name today is Clippy and so that's what should be used in the article. The fact the name was apparently different in the past doesn't have any relevance to what the common name is now. Averixus (talk) 23:00, 4 August 2023 (UTC)

WP:COMMONNAME has to do with the name of the article. but the article is called "Office Assistant." Which is an order of magnitude more common than either Clippit or Clippy. Andre🚐 23:13, 4 August 2023 (UTC)

Right, but Clippy/Clippit is bolded in the lead, is the subject of much of the article, and doesn't have a separate article of its own. This page is clearly about Clippy/Clippit more than it's about other Office Assistants. If that's an issue with the intended scope of the page, then more drastic changes are needed, but that's not a reason to ignore general style guidance in the meantime.

Also consider in MOS:SURNAME: "For fictional entities, use common names. For example, Jason, Luigi, and Wesker." The majority of sources use Clippy, it is the common name. Averixus (talk) 06:52, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

Again, the COMMONNAME, which is guidance on what to title the article, is "Office Assistant," as it has been since 2004. It's about the use of assistive technology in office of which, Clippit/Clippy is the most well-known example, but the article is not about Clippit exclusively nor does he need an independent article, in my opinion. SURNAME is a red herring as it pertains to surnames and the use of first names for fictional characters. It is not relevant here. Clippit has no first name or surname. His name is Clippit, and sometimes, and more commonly known as, Clippy. The article can and should use both names. Andre🚐 07:00, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

RfC added to try and get some other input, since we don't seem to be approaching consensus. Averixus (talk) 08:40, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

I would posit that there is a consensus here, i.e. the nearly twenty-year(?) status quo that was changed a couple weeks ago. jp×g 09:31, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

It's not like that was the first time it's been changed, and there's a general consensus outside of Wikipedia that its name is Clippy!

This entry was started in 2004 using both names, but mostly 'Clippy'. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:History/Office_Assistant&offset=20040110070929

So, no, we don't have a consensus in favour of 'Clippit'. Oolong (talk) 11:04, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

There cannot be a consensus outside of Wikipedia. Andre🚐 15:25, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

The problem with the name “Clippy” is that it was never used in any version of Microsoft Office. It wasn’t changed either; what happened was that “Clippy”, either via nicknaming or a misrecollection, became more common in pop culture, which on rare occasions bled into Microsoft marketing materials. 68.20.25.90 (talk) 08:49, 17 November 2023 (UTC)

To clarify, even Office 2003 and Office for Mac 2004, the final versions to include the Office Assistant feature, exclusively use the name Clippit within the software. 2600:1700:D04:8240:253F:D919:1C72:E2BE (talk) 08:55, 17 November 2023 (UTC)

So we have at least one source that pre-dates Wikipedia's insistence on "Clippit", but it doesn't seem to cite its own sources for this claim. It also uses "Clippy" twice as often.

Can you find a single official Microsoft source for "Clippit"?

Thanks! Oolong (talk) 09:57, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

Sources do not need to cite their own sources. Some of us actually had Office 97 and Office 2000. He was only known as Clippit until he became a pop cultural phenomenon as an unhelpful assistant in which he became popularly, and incorrectly, known as Clippy. Microsoft later referred to him as Clippy as well. Andre🚐 15:27, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

No, but sources should be 'reliable' according to Wikipedia standards, and I don't think an unpublished undergraduate thesis counts, does it? However, neither does an email from the designer of the figure in question, which is what's finally convinced me that it really was officially called 'Clippit' prior to 2001! Many of us who used Office 97 at the time remember it as Clippy - do with that information what you will!

I guess now we just need to establish whether the name 'Clippit' retains any official status at all given that Microsoft now uses 'Clippy', or else move on and focus on which name is in common use and go with that... Oolong (talk) 17:33, 6 August 2023 (UTC)

There's nothing unreliable or obsolete about [1] this article published in the 2022 issue of "Seattle Met", this article in Mental Floss[2], this article on Artsy[3], and as far as the Stanford thesis, it apparently was published (at least, it certainly was by the Wikipedia definition of published, which also includes things like a gravestone or an archive) and cited over 60 times[4] Since you've concluded that this as a Mandela effect (which, in this case, is just a bad memory, and not a mysterious quantum time travel phenomenon that people swear up and down happened to them or that they saw despite apparently not happening in consensus reality). Here is another academic source [5] [6]Many people complain that Clippit is not very intelligent. And another. [7] The experience with Clippit was compared to the equivalent interaction with an annoying human who shows up in your office uninvited, cited by 68. And even more The simple answer is that Clippit just wasn’t part of the user experience[8] Many people complain that Clippit is not very intelligent. [9] Office Assistant, named Clippit, because it has been the source of wide Clippit easier to hide in Office 2000. But the complaints kept coming in and now Clippit [10] There are about 400 academic links to Clippit[11] Andre🚐 18:13, 6 August 2023 (UTC)

...And about 2,000 results for Clippy. [12]

We've established that it was originally introduced as Clippit. The question is whether that 20+ year old name which is no longer prefered by the public or the original creators should still be given priority here. Averixus (talk) 18:49, 6 August 2023 (UTC)

Many of those results do not pertain to the Office Assistant at all. The first 4 on the first page of results do. Then it starts to be other things, such as a Python CLI[13] or tissue engineering[14] or torque control in lingual appliances[15] I'd say something like half of those results aren't relevant at all. Andre🚐 18:54, 6 August 2023 (UTC)

Even if half of them are irrelevant, that's still more than twice as many hits for Clippy as Clippit! Genuine question: do you believe that Clippit is the more common or widely-used name today? Or do you believe it's less common, but should have precedence because it was the earliest official name? Averixus (talk) 19:06, 6 August 2023 (UTC)

Yes, I am not arguing that Clippit is more common than Clippy, it's obvious that Clippy is more common despite originating as a simplification or an error. Clippy is a widely used nickname. It's not uncommon for a nickname to be more widely used than the official, original name. That does not mean we need to use that everywhere we use the name though. That is not what COMMONNAME calls for. COMMONNAME calls for the title of the article to reflect the most common name (which is "Office Assistant") Andre🚐 19:10, 6 August 2023 (UTC)

"Office Assistant" is a broader referent than "Clippy". Clippy is the paperclip avatar of the Office Assistant (once known as Clippit). Oolong (talk) 09:20, 8 August 2023 (UTC)