WORK IN PROGRESS
The Clips list / Alerts list is one of the big differentiators between Blue Iris and other surveillance systems. The lists (sometimes referred to as folders) are visual representations of content stored in database tables.
The Clips list is the content stored in the clips table. This database table keeps track of where recordings exist based on your Global settings -> Clips and archiving settings.
The Alerts list is the content stored in the alerts table. This database table keeps track of all the alerts that occurred. Alerts are often based on your Trigger settings. However, with AI (DeepStack) and many other settings in the Alerts tab, users have filtered triggers into smarter and smarter alerts.
Alerts folder

If a user wants hard copies of the trigger frame, i.e. the image that caused the camera to trigger, then those hard copies will be placed in the alerts folder. The settings are additive, i.e. if a user chooses to save a Hi-res jpeg, this will be done in addition to the Database record not in replacement of the database record.
Click on Help button for details on each selection.
Clips and archiving settings