Talk:Stationery/Archive 1

Alternate spelling

Anyone know how common the usage for stationary with an a is - especially in non-US locales? Thought I would ask since it is labeled as a misspelling - maybe it is instead an alternate spelling. I set up a redirect for the alternate since it is so common. Trelvis 20:09, Sep 3, 2003 (UTC)

According to the OED, the spelling stationary has not been used in this context since the 18th century. The noun is now universally spelled stationery. However, there is an adjective stationary which means motionless. Shantavira 12:47, 1 May 2004 (UTC)

Move to Wiktionary

As this page stands, as a mere definition, it should be moved to Wikitionary. TimothyPilgrim 16:38, Feb 27, 2004 (UTC)

No, keep, it includes a list of articles about stationery.--Patrick 13:10, 1 May 2004 (UTC)

It should probably be turned into a disambiguation page, then. -- Beland 19:26, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

2007-03-30 Automated pywikipediabot message

--CopyToWiktionaryBot 02:30, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Ongoing stationery updates

In an effort to improve this article, I'll be reverting changes that aren't specifically relevant to the article. E.G. adding images that aren't related to the body text in some direct way. thescimitar (talk) 15:50, 3 September 2008 (UTC)thescimitar

While they weren't images I added I don't entirely agree with their removal. They were illustrations of the lead sentence - Stationery is a general name given to paper and office supplies such as envelopes, notepads,.... Now all the images relate to the second sentence The term "stationery" is frequently used to refer more specifically to paper used for written correspondence (usually decorated or personalized), sometimes with matching envelopes. Both images were a little much but a single image of a variety of office supplies seems like a good thing to me. The current focus of the text of the article on the less common (though much more beautiful) side of high end social correspondence seems to be more what needs to be addressed. Not by taking away from that but by adding some more detail on the current state of everyday stationery. -- SiobhanHansa 16:13, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

I don't disagree, as the text stands. The changes can be reverted; however, my experience has been that the term "stationery" now is understood to mean (NB: in western cultures) the high-end, personalized variety. Generally things like scissors, pens, etc (all that might be found at a stationer) are now associated with office supplies and office supply stores. Some sort of disambiguation is probably appropriate here but I haven't yet conceptualized a way to deal with it. As such, I've been running with the "Avoiding Image Stackups" on Wikipedia:Picture_tutorial. When I began working on this article, it suffered from a severe disparity between a huge gallery of semi-relevant materials and very little body text. I've been trying to restore a balance. thescimitar (talk) 16:58, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

That could be a solution - focus this article simply on personalized writing paper and the like and have a disambiguation to office supplies at the top. There's no point in duplicating content that's in another article. There are still a few items that fall through the cracks - personal but non-personalized writing supplies still fit into stationery but not really office supplies (e.g. birthday cards and high end pens) even in Western countries. Could those still fit in here? -- SiobhanHansa 17:47, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

That's a good point. I'll work on formatting both disambiguation and adding non-personalized, high end materials (like writing tools, etc).thescimitar (talk) 18:11, 3 September 2008 (UTC)thescimitar

Added new "History" section; I'll be adding sections like "Styles" that include writing instruments, etc. Should aid in expanding article scope and disambiguation.thescimitar (talk) 18:29, 3 September 2008 (UTC)thescimitar

Modern use of the term...

According to the 'citation needed' introduction paragraph: Modern use of the term "stationery" more specifically relates to materials used for formal or personal correspondence. I have never used the term/heard the term used to be that specific. For example, shops (UK) often tend to have sections where you can buy children's stationery or back to school stationery. I would suggest that either a citation is added to the line, or it is simply removed. Thoughts --Woodgreener (talk) 11:44, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Haven't had the opportunity to cite this, but do have a cite for it. More updates this week. thescimitar (talk) 02:10, 8 September 2008 (UTC)thescimitar

I removed it for the mean time—I wrote in the edit summary my own reason, that is in NZ the word stationery is used in the same sense as in the UK, and I suspect that that was an Americanism. 118.90.47.88 (talk) 23:55, 24 February 2009 (UTC)