[Tango-A] ADMIN: Proper use of geographical prefix to avoid problems in postings (POSTERS PLEASE READ!)

[Shahrukh Merchant]

IF YOU POST TO TANGO-A, PLEASE READ THIS!!

(If you are a reader of Tango-A who never posts, you don't need to worry 
about this, but you may choose to read on to understand the use of the 
geographical prefixes if you wish to take advantage of them.)

Owing to a combination of (a) forgetfullness or (b) laziness (to read 
the posting instructions or (c) slopiness (typos) or (d) small changes 
to the way the geographical prefix works since the list was moved to the 
current server about a year ago, an increasing number of postings are 
using this incorrectly, with the result that their postings are not 
being distributed as they probably intended or would like.

April 30 was a particularly extreme example, where only 1 of 6 postings 
had correctly formatted subject lines:

Here they are, with explanations as to what's wrong with each.

>    1. NA-W, NA-C, NA-E: UTango - A Spring Celebration of Tango

First of all, this should have only ONE geographical region since the 
event is happening only at one place (in this case it should have been 
NA-W:). In addition, the new listserver NO LONGER SUPPORTS multiple 
locations, so you MUST choose the ONE correct or most appropriate one.

The correct form should have been:

Subject: NA-W: UTango - A Spring Celebration of Tango

>    2. NA-W: Tango in the Square ... Union Square Park,	San
>       Francisco - 1st Sunday of each month for the summer.

This was the one correct one out of 6.

>    3. Early registration reminder for Paradiso and Mandragora	Tango
>       Orquestra, Medford, MA

This had no geographical prefix so it ended up going only to the small 
subset of people who subscribe to the Digest version of the list.

The correct form should have been:

Subject: NA-E: Early registration reminder for Paradiso and Mandragora 
Tango Orquestra, Medford, MA

>    4. NA-W/ Santa Fe Tango Ensemble

It's picky about syntax. / won't work instead of :

The correct form should have been:

Subject: NA-W: Santa Fe Tango Ensemble

>    5. May events in Providence

Same as No. 3 above. The correct form should have been:

Subject: NA-E: May events in Providence

>    6. (Tango-A ) AN-E: Neo- Tango Festival de Montr?al, Canada

The subject must START with NA-E: (don't put (Tango-A) in front nor 
"Re:" nor "Fwd:" etc. And of course AN-E: doesn't work.

The correct form should have been:

Subject: NA-E: Neo-Tango Festival de Montreal, Canada


One important thing for all posters to note: Most subscribers don't 
bother to change the default ("All Topics") so as long as you put ANY 
correct prefix, most readers will receive it. And even if they do opt 
out of certain regions, they are bound to include both regions if they 
live within Tango-ing distance of two regions. So don't agonize too much 
about which one to put if your event is close to the border between two 
regions. But if you don't put any, or if it's incorrectly formatted, 
then only a MUCH SMALLER number of subscribers who use the Digest will 
get it.

The defined gepgraphical "topics" are:

SA: South America.
NA-E: Eastern North America (essentially areas in the Eastern and 
Atlantic time zones)
NA-C: Central North America (essentially areas in the Central and 
Mountain time zones)
NA-W: Western North America (essentially areas in the Pacific Time zone)
EU-W: Western Europe.
EU-E: Eastern Europe.
AASP: Asia, Africa and South Pacific.

MISC: In addition, a MISC topic exists, that should only be used when 
there is no fit for any of the other topics, i.e., when it is an 
announcement that, by its nature is not geographically oriented. E.g., 
announcement of a new source for purchase of Tango music on the Internet.

ADMIN: This is a special topic for use for postings by the administrator 
only, for important administrative information about Tango-A. IMPORTANT: 
If you ever change the topics your are subscribed to, make sure that you 
never remove the ADMIN topic as you could miss the infrequent but 
important administrative messages!

A detailed discussion about topics (including how subscribers may select 
to receive only announcements about areas that interest them) can be 
found at http://tango-l.com/tango-A-rules.htm#Topics

You may also wish to browse http://Tango-L.com/, which has been recently 
updated significantly to be more useful and complete, with a FAQ for 
common problems (unsubscription problems, posting didn't show up, etc.).

Regards,

Shahrukh Merchant
Tango-A/-L administrator
tango-L-owner at mit.edu