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Comment by paulddraper | Hacker News Reader

> What is the "Archive" icon even supposed to depict? The lower part of a printer, with a sheet of paper sticking out?

It's a storage box (also known as a "banker's box"), used for long-term storage of documents or other office materials. [1]

I guarantee everyone in a computer/IT setting has seen one.

[1] https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/6275549/Office-Depot-...

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I've seen plenty of cardboard moving boxes in my life, and I've seen the archive icon uncountable times, but it never occurred to me that's what that icon is supposed to be. A thin wide rectangle on top of a square could be a bajillion things. If they wanted to depict a box, they should have shown 3 dimensions.

A hole punched for the handle would've made it a lot more obvious.

That and the disbelief at the little wrench-and-screwdriver icon both seemed weirdly misplaced. Anyone can point out dozens of weak icons, I snicker at every floppy disk and phone too. But it'd take a real visual poet to find a perfectly unambiguous tiny picture to convey the meaning of "archive" - what, a little library? Scrapbook? I'd say there's an unwritten law of iconry, it shouldn't be completely wrong, but it can't really be completely right.

I always thought it was a printer, but representing a document to be stored in one of those boxes.

I was confused by the author's ignorance about this, too. How do you work in the industry for 25+ years and not know what an archive box looks like?

Because an "archive box" is a thing that is not necessarily a common occurrence in office culture around the world.

The author is Swedish. Google's translation of "archive box" is "arkivlåda". That is not a thing over here, and is not even in the dictionary. An image search for the Swedish word resulted in many boxes that looked very different.

And even if I see it as a box, it looks also like a box of printer paper to me. (It's the "Fresh paper" icon! :) )

Either way, you are diverting away from the main issue of the paragraph: Would you recognise what the icon represents even without the text?

I've worked in America for 20 years and I never knew about this either. I just thought that was a regular cardboard box, and it never occurred to me the archive icon is trying to depict such a thing. I always just thought it was an ugly file folder or something.

I never had to use such a box in real life.

> I never had to use such a box in real life.

Okay but that type of box was all over the national and global news this year: https://www.google.com/search?&q=trump+bathroom+documents&tb...

I pretty actively try to stay away from orange man escapades. I'm sure we'll get more than enough when he's president / evil dictator for life again /sigh

There's those types of boxes everywhere! Whether it's chinatown[1], a garage[2], or a secured area in Maralago.

[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-classified-documents-hous...

[2] https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/12/additional-document...

But it seems a bit too off-topic for this thread, dunnit?

I can't wait to learn what you think this thread is about.

This man uses the archive button

I can second this: While I do know that kind of box as depicted, I've never owned one and I have never used one. (However, plenty of rectangular cardboard boxes.) It's a very cultural thing and it really stresses you imagination, if it isn't an item that is consistent with your world, but rather manifesting a competing concept. If there are also alternative interpretations available, thanks to the drawing style, this doesn't help particularly.

He knows what a cardboard box looks like. He didn't know that the thin rectangle on a square is supposed to be a cardboard box, or that a cardboard box is supposed to represent "archive". Cardboard boxes are just as often used for moving things.

I have never seen a box like this anywhere except in document storage closets in American movies.

They are not a thing in Germany, as far as I can tell.

Interesting—what do you use for document storage in Germany? I'm always on the lookout for new storage ideas for managing all my crap.

Binders.

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