What the hell are slim pips & wide pips ?

[Pipsual]

Of late I have been hearing quite a bit about "slim" pips and "wide" pips
I have never heard of that

[James Z]

Of late I have been hearing quite a bit about "slim" pips and "wide" pips
I have never heard of that

This could be somewhat confusing to new player scoming into table tennis
Stated simply , "slim" pips are the rubbers that are listed as "long" pips.
LARC stands for List of Approved Racket Coverings . Racket Coverings means rubbers. This itself I somewhat confusing because you are not covering the racket but only covering the blade (or frame) with rubber. The “racket: itself is the whole assembly of rubbers & the blade. So it should stand for List of Approved Rubber coverings
Anyway, there are some pips listed on ITTF LARC as “long” pips. However this is a deceptive naming convention used by the ITTF to brainwash & confuse even very experienced or even pro pips players into believing that "long" pips still exist in table tennis . This is besides the simple fact that ITTF actually banned long pips in 1983 by setting the maximum allowed limit of long pips at 2.0 mm. After that 11 more rule & regulation changes were made to severely limit the capabilities of long pips. This is why you cannot really call long pips as long pips
"Wide" pips are the pips that are called “out” pips in ITTF LARC. This also confusing because so called long pips are also “long” pips. Wide pips are generally known as “short” pips among more experienced players.
But keep in mind this very important fact > The maximum allowed pip length for any pips in table tennis regardless of what you want to call it, is 2.05 mm (it was 2.00 mm after 1983 but was changed to 2.05 mm in 2024 , reasons only political and no technical merit won’t be discussed here)
The only difference therefore between the two type of pips is the width of the pips. This is why it would make more sense to call the ITTF long pips as “slim” pips and ITTF “out” pips as wide pips. There are other pip design parameters involved here but that is beyond the scope of this post.
BTW you can also call slim pips as flex pips and wide pips as stiff pips as well. Because you can take two pips and have same height & diameter but one can be more flexible providing more spin but lesser speed & the other pips can be stiffer providing more speed but less spin

[Pipsual]

So this is somewhat confusing. because what exactly are "long" pips as of today in 2024 then

So if they were banned according to you , why were they banned in 1983 & 1998 and so on

Are any long pips available today