Regarding tags about cassettes, etc.

Cassettes, self-contained magnetic tape not in the form of a reel. Might be audio, video, or data; analog or digital.

Tags about them are a small mess:

The tag cassette appears to be used only for audio tapes, so far.

- audio tape has been used only twice, both for reels, not cassettes.
- audio cassette has been used only twice.
- compact cassette has been used only once, but that seems to be the more specific name for the most ubiquitous kind of audio cassette?
- cassette tape currently is dominantly for audio tapes, with a few video tapes and data tapes.
- cassette player also is dominantly for audio tapes, with a few using it on data tapes.
- tape recorder looks like it’s used for a mix of audio cassettes and reel-to-reel tape, with a few that are ambiguously just tape players (eg. boomboxes)

- video tape has been tagged on only 16 images, compared with:
- vhs at 259; however, a lot of the time, this is being used to tag VHS-esque visual effects, like tracking error warping, overlaid on-screen displays, grain and color distortion, rather than the cassettes as physical objects. (Two of the 16 tagged video tape just have a visual effect, too.)
- vhs tapes has 6 pictures, 5 of which show multiple cassettes and 1 as just a visual effect. (vhs tape, singular, doesn’t exist as a tag.)
- vcr also is used to tag both video cassette recorders/players as objects, and just visual effects.

I don’t see any widely-used dedicated tag for simulated (or real) analog video effects. analog tv is on 11 images, mostly with quite heavy distortion. Some images get tagged glitch and some get tagged timestamp, which may indeed apply, but aren’t unique to the style, of course. I also don’t see a tag for the “play/pause” overlay…

Anyway, there’s also betamax with 6 images.

None of the tags have implications or aliases.

So…

What tag should be specifically for audio cassettes?
Should the various kinds of cassettes imply cassette? Or should the nonspecific “cassette” get nuked eg. by aliasing it into whatever tag is chosen for audio cassettes, thereby enforcing use of a separate tag for video and data cassettes?

Should a new tag be made for vhs cassettes as objects? Or should a new tag be made for analog video effects? (I don’t think it should be “analog tv” because that’s maybe too specific.)
Should there remain a generic “video tape” tag, or just vhs and betamax?

I propose:
- cassette, audio cassette, cassette tape alias-> compact cassette
Although this shoehorns the general “cassette” into only this one form, my sense is that this is what most people will mean if they try to use that tag. Also, even if “compact cassette” is not as well-known a term, having the others aliased into it will take care of discoverability. Older computers used these kinds of tapes to store data, so it remains correct for those (people could start a tag like data tape to use in addition, if they want to distinguish them.)

A few posts use these tags for cassette cases or case insert art…still close enough to be relevant, I think.

I don’t see a neat way to handle “audio tape”, “cassette player”, or “tape recorder”. They can just exist, I guess.

- A new tag like video playback effects should be made and applied, and vcr and vhs removed on such images. I’m not completely sure about the tag name - I’d like it to cover things like the “play/pause” overlay, which aren’t necessarily analog, thus why I’m not suggesting “analog video effects” even though I wrote that above…
After cleanup:
- video tape, vhs alias-> some new tag such as video cassette (object) They’re almost all going to be VHS anyway but if someone draws it inaccurately or something, it still works. The parenthetical is to make it clear up-front. Unfortunately, this renders “video tape” unusable for tagging playback of a video tape, which might turn up in comics or photos, but it hasn’t been used that way so far and I think “video tape” would help discoverability.
Alternatively, I could be convinced that “video tape” should be the final tag, instead.
vhs tapes can just get retagged by hand into whatever is chosen above.
- betamax has been used to tag the topic of Betamax as well as cartridges themselves, so I don’t think it should imply whatever tag is chosen.
- A new tag such as vcr (object) should be made and then vcr aliased into it, just for the clarity.

Done.

How does vhs effects sound?