Mixtape tab removal etiquette?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Longtime lurker, first time question asker... anyhow, I've noticed that all the mixtapes I receive still have the tabs attached. I always remove the tabs off mine to avoid my accidentally taping over / screwing up everything. For the same reason, I immediately remove the tabs off the tapes I receive. So why doesn't anyone else seem to do this? Am I just a paranoid screwup? (err, don't answer that last one)

― poppy, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Also, is this sort of a modesty issue? Like you leave the tabs on to imply that you won't mind the recipient taping over it if they think it's bad, because you are so humble and charmingly self-depreciatory, whereas someone who takes the tabs off is on a self deluded EGO TRIP about their amazing mixtaping skills?

― poppy, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Tabs off or on is no problem, as there is always cellotape if the mixtape is dire!

I usually pop tabs, because the fear of the accidental erase which has ruined loads of tapes overrides anything else.

― kate, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i know exactly what you mean. but it's surely not a big deal. i just pop em out on ones i get that have tabs still on. i think i usually pop tabs off on ones i make.

― Ron, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

That record button is just so big and pushable... you're not paranoid, poppy. (Or we're both paranoid.)

― Vinnie, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I always forget to pop the tabs on mixtapes. You would have to be quite silly to accidentyly tape over a tape though. :)

― fractal, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Taking the tabs off seems to me like the most twattish thing you can do giving a mixtape (but I suppose objectively exactly as twattish as giving a mixtape in the first place).

I heart CD-Rs.

― Graham, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

graham i disagree strongly, leaving the tabs in is like saying "you prob. won't like this"....i'm not gonna give someone a tape i don't think is too fantastic to accidentally tape over, & y'know other people aren't gonna be as careful about that shit 'cause 9x out of 10 the punters i make tapes for, well y'know their lives don't revolve as entirely around their stereos as mine does & they're not as hip to the risks. & even i've accidentally taped over cool stuff 'cause the person who did the tape for me neglected to pop the tabs.

― unknown or illegal user, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

btw i know i'm always blowing my own trump about my killer ass mixtapes but hey isnt this good. it's for beth aka duckling, hey beth if yr reading this don't forget put that left eye lopez song on and also pls THE YIPS, man the yips are great.

― unknown or illegal user, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

makes no difference to me whether the tabs are left in or not. i mean, i generally don't tape over stuff anyway unless i already have it, even if i hate it. besides if you take the tabs out, someone can always sellotape over them.

― di, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

but di the TAPING OVER BY MISTAKE factor! c'mon it's a very real danger.

― unknown or illegal user, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

this thread would fit better on the tape exchange forum It's easier to remove the tabs than block them up again so why not leave it up to the recipient to decide whether to remove them?

― halo halo, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

anyway yo tell beth to lookit that AOTM page, i reckon i DONE GOOD.

― unknown or illegal user, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

okay. i've never taped over a tape by mistake.

― di, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

doorag did you get my e-mail re: ghost world? (liz are you coming too?)

― di, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Elizabeth, the Tape Exchange Forum is BUNG BUNG BUNG thanks to some dick with no javascript skillz. Tho tapex is very much alive and well. </plug>

I don't tend to pop tabs, but that's only cause i usually don't think of it. I would suspect most non-poppers simply forget about the tabs in their excitement/hurry to meet the post. Similarly, poppers aren't [necessarily] paranoid obsessives, just more thoughtful than us lazier folks.

― petra jane, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Graham: you are going to hell, my friend. CD-Rs are the K-mart generic-brand greeting cards of the music-sharing world. There's no sense of effort or painstaking process involved => what is the point?

And don't get me started on people that don't write out tracklistings...

― petra jane, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

but petra, i haf just recorded live mix onto the computer to put on a cd. that's not the same, surely? you may have other lo-fi leanings (and hey i like tapes too) but are you more put off by people choosing songs out of their "my music" folder, or is it really the cd's fault?

― Ron, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

no CDRs are good too. the advantage of getting sent a mix CD is that you can use tracks off it for other mixtapes (whereas with a mixtape there would be more hiss).

― di, Wednesday, 31 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

There's no sense of effort or painstaking process involved => what is the point?

I must disagree -- you're still trying to figure out what to include, whether or not it can all fit, etc. And it's still music and it can be heard, yay. :-)

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 31 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I heart CD-R's too. But, it was more fun when I used to make them on my old school Phillips CD-R machine, selecting the analogue setting and having to listen to every song and always messing up at least once!

― jel --, Wednesday, 31 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

and once you mess up on a CD-R there's no going back.

Oh and mixing to CD-R from 4-Track was also a painstaking experience!

― jel --, Wednesday, 31 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I remember being very shocked the first time I gave someone a comp and then got the same C90 back a couple of weeks later with different things taped on it for me. I leave the tabs, because if someone doesn't care for it, what use is it but to record over it? I have never done this to a tape given to me, though - I know how much love and care and thought and effort goes into them, so I couldn't, even ones that I don't play.

― Martin Skidmore, Wednesday, 31 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Take the tabs off before giving someone a mix tape. If they want to tape over my work, they can at least go through the trouble of covering the holes with adhesive tape.

― DeRayMi, Wednesday, 31 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I bet there are a heck of a lot of 'people' out there who don't know that the anti-erase tabs are e'en there.

― Tim Bateman, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What's with the scare quotes?

― RickyT, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I never remove the tabs. It just wouldn't even occur to me that someone would record over the brilliant tape I'd sent them.

― jel --, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

damnit, y're shattering my illusions here...I admit, my main aversion to CD-Rs is really the fact one can chuck a few tracks from their My Music folder, hit a button, and then piss off for a few minutes while technology takes over, so really it's not the medium it's those who abuse it terribly who've spoilt it for everyone.

― petra jane, Saturday, 3 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.