[Tango-L] The resurrection of Tango-L (Part 1. What triggered it)

[Shahrukh Merchant]

Dear list members,

It was indeed an unintended irony that the initial email on this subject 
announcing the survey on the resurrection of Tango-L, that got this 
thread started, was sent on Easter. :-) The beginnings of this 
"resurrection" actually happened about 2 years ago when, in January 
2013, I decided to "retire" the Tango-L and wrote up a longish email 
explaining the reasons for it. Tango-L had already been pretty dormant 
for at least several months. For whatever reason (that I can't remember 
now), I never sent that email. I then forgot about the subject, since an 
inactive list does not take up any time or any meaningful resources (as 
echoed by many of you as your stated reason for remaining on the list 
all this time).

Then, a week or two ago, I got a polite but rather pointed note from the 
MIT computer systems administrator in charge of mailing lists, asking me 
if Tango-A could be retired. Tango-L was not mentioned (but probably 
just as an oversight, since Tango-A was getting at least a little 
traffic and hence was a little more visible). But clearly a decision had 
to be made on both lists, or they would be summarily closed down.

Even though I could probably have found an MIT "sponsor" (alumni don't 
count), it would have been abusing the good graces of their computing 
department who tolerated a list that had nothing to do with MIT's 
mission for all these years. There are literally just 1 or 2 members 
with an @mit.edu in their email addresses on each list, of about 1000 
members each. And furthermore, for a few dollars a month (or even free 
if you're willing to deal with Yahoo groups and its imitators), the list 
can be hosted on any of a number of paid hosts. When the list first 
started (that's 20 years ago!), a mailing list server was a rare 
commodity and having access to one was a luxury worth struggling to 
preserve, but obviously that hasn't been the case for a dozen or more years.

So I got a 2-month extension in order to "take care of business," and 
decided to do the surveys. I was actually expecting far fewer responses 
than I got (and expecting even fewer in favour of keeping the list 
going), so it's probably just as well that I did take the survey. (When 
I was going to close the list down 2 years ago, I was just going to 
announce it and do it.)

So it's rather gratifying to see all the positive comments in the last 
digest I received several minutes ago! While no decision has been made 
yet on keeping Tango-L going, I have many responses to make to some of 
the comments, and would also like to share many of my thoughts from my 
2013 never-sent email, but I'd like to do that now in the context of the 
survey responses as well (and most have come in that are going to, I think).

So consider this a "Part 1 of n" email on this subject, and I'll try and 
write 1 or so per day for the next few days. But don't wait for Part 2 
before chiming in yourselves on this subject!

After all, a discussion list with no posts is not much of a discussion 
list. If everyone wants to read posts but no one wants to write them, 
that doesn't really work either. Many of the best posts have been 
written in response to a rather ordinary initial one, so go ahead and 
make that initial one--don't feel that you have to be profound (but 
yeah, 1-liners are still annoying so if you're not the Dalai Lama and 
each of your words is infinitely imponderable, make them at least 3 
lines, OK? :-)).

Oh, and in the middle of the slew of posts about the Tango-L list itself 
(which is great--absolutely do keep them coming, even though this is 
Tango-L and not Tango-L-L :-)), did someone notice that there actually 
was one on Tango? A gentleman from Japan asked about USA-based Tango 
groups and orchestras. I know there are several such orchestras, 
amateur, professional and in-between, probably organizers on this list 
who have hired some of them, and certainly people on the list who have 
heard some or all of them (and undoubtedly have their opinions on them). 
See, it doesn't take much to start a meaningful thread on Tango--so what 
are you waiting for? :-)

Shahrukh