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Comment by marcus_holmes | Hacker News Reader

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?

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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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