[Tango-L] The size and reach of Tango

[Trini y Sean (PATangoS)]

--- On Fri, 12/9/11, kace ong <kaceong at gmail.com> wrote:

Nowadays, the number of online tango resources has exploded,
but not the quality nor the reach.  The diffused nature of
these sites means there is not as much interesting nor
information-dense threads as before.

I would like to ask the list:

- Besides Tango-L being a place to "scoop" the latest news (e.g.
   someone famous died), which other online resource has a
   reliable breaking news feed relating to tango?  Unfortunately
   I found almost all tango "revistas" from Argentina do not
   have RSS feeds, even though they are plugged into the news
   "centre" of our universe.



Hi Kace,

I suspect that in lack of information dense threads on Tango-L now compared to a few years ago can be attributed to a lack of new issues.  There's not much on the Tango-L that has been brought up dozens of times before in one way or another.  Stuff that was brought up has been integrated in to local teaching material.  There is a lot less mystery now.

New dancers are now reading blogs.  However, as you noted, there's overall less discussion taken place because there are so many blogs and it's not possible to have a deep discussion on those blogs as one used to on Tango-L.

As far as resources, Facebook probably has the biggest forum or potential for it.  It is also the fastest way of disseminating information in popular tango.  For example, the deaths of several US tango organizers/teachers were shared on FB but not on Tango-L, which is where they would have been announced a few years ago.  I've certainly found it easier and faster to use it to announce events than than our usual local listserv because posts don't have to be so formal.

As for discussions  on FB, Oliver Kolker and Melina Sedo have occasionally made posts that have caused some discussion.  Same with a few people that have posted videos.  Nothing though, that is as deep or detailed as discussions on Tango-L.

Unfortunately, newer dancers do not realize this loss unless they comb through the old Tango-L archives, which is unlikely.  Perhaps a "Best Of Tango-L" blog could be created, but who's willing to do the work?  

In the Pittsburgh-Cleveland area, an organizer created a site that allows discussions to take place.  However, it has also suffered recently from the problem of trolls, causing people to leave the site.  There's also an issue of people not used to having their opinions publicly critiqued. I imagine the same might apply to new forums in older communities.

Trini de Pittsburgh