[Tango-L] Why has Tango-L faded away?

[Shahrukh Merchant]

Dear Tango-L members,

I think there are a number of things that have come together to make a 
Tango-L type of list redundant. I don't think any one or even two of 
these items would kill a list like this, but combined they are all just 
that many nails in the coffin.

1. Tango Pioneering Times (no longer)

In the early years of Tango-L, those involved in Tango were pioneers. 
Tango was new in the US and Europe, and probably even more fragmented in 
other parts of the world. A foreigner at a Buenos Aires milonga was a 
source of wonder for locals. Now it's just the opposite--I recently had 
a (non-Tango-dancing) Argentine friend tell me once (obviously she was 
misinformed, but it's still a perception), "You dance Tango?? But you 
live here--I thought just tourists did that!"

The Stanford Tango Week was the only Tango festival in the world (I 
think) when Tango-L first got started. So of course the pioneers wanted 
to communicate with others as it was an intimate circle. Now, Tango is 
much more mature and even mainstream. People don't need a discussion 
list to talk about it any more than they need one to talk about their 
refrigerators (OK, Tango isn't quite that generic, but you get the 
point). Tango is "just another activity" for a far larger percentage of 
Tango dancers now than it was then.

2. Internet Pioneering Times (no longer)

As others have mentioned, the Internet in its current form did not 
exist. There was no Google, no web pages with Tango information, 
initially only academics and those in large or tech corporations had 
email access (until AOL and Compuserve came along). A list-server was a 
rare and precious commodity. The ONLY was to find out about Tango 
outside your local community short of making a trip was via Tango-L.

Obviously, the opposite is true now. A search for Tango just in Yahoo 
groups yields 1,884 matches. A search on Facebook Groups and Pages would 
no doubt yield many thousands more. Google can search pretty much 
anything Tango going on anywhere. What special role does or even can 
Tango-L have in this?

3. Static Membership

This is more apparent to me than most people since I get notification of 
new members joining the list. It's a trickle, as it has been for the 
last several years. The list has been essentially static in membership 
for the last 5 years at least (about 1200 people altogether) and that 
total number has been constant pretty much since a year after Tango-L's 
inception. During that time, Tango has exploded in the world 10x or 100x 
perhaps.

Of course a discussion mailing list of 10,000 or 100,000 would not be 
manageable other than as an announcement-only list, but the point is 
that if there is nothing to draw in new blood, the list can't possibly 
fulfill its original function. Maybe it can be a nostalgia list for 
"Tango Pioneers" or something like that, but that's a far cry from the 
original scope.

Besides, it seems that the older members of the list have "heard it all 
before" and without the new blood, the discussions become repetitive. 
And the new blood tends to be younger, have a different perspective on 
Tango (for better or for worse, but that's besides the point), has never 
used mailing lists, has many more electronic media to choose between, or 
just plain doesn't identify with the increasingly "old world" view (from 
their standpoint) on Tango-L.

4. Changing Nature of Discussions

The "internet overload" syndrome combined with greater use of 
smartphones has led to few people having the time or inclination for 
protracted internet discussions on anything. At one end of the spectrum, 
people would rather click to take a picture, click again to post it, and 
type 5 words ("My cat dancing to D'Arienzo!") and be content with 50 
people "Like"-ing it or replies like "Mine prefers DiSarli ... LOL."

At the other end of the spectrum, they would rather post something more 
significant or thoughtful on their own blog, which could lead to some 
traffic, recognition, income, etc., for the poster, rather than 
"wasting" it in a motley mix of posts on Tango-L.

5. Connecting to the Tango World on Tango-L (no longer)

Well, we Tangueros should recognize the power of connection. One of the 
things that Tango-L provided was connection: Connection to people who 
shared the interest, connection to people you had danced with, 
connection to far-flung Tango communities, etc. The "discussion" aspect 
was there in parallel but many valued the connection as much if not more 
than the discussion. In the first few years of Tango-L it was the ONLY 
way to connect with fellow tangueros in "distant lands" without actually 
travelling there.

Now, there are many and far better ways to connect (even if not to 
discuss)--Facebook comes most readily to mind. So there is no need for 
Tango-L for this connection aspect (nor does it hold up very well to the 
alternatives on this component).

CONCLUSIONS

True discussion lists and web fora that seem to succeed are those that 
are based around increasingly narrow topics, where the feeling of a 
pioneer spirit remains, and where there is no other ready source for 
information (such as with TangoDJ for a few years, until that too 
fizzled out). I can see a list for Tango musicians, budding or 
otherwise, also succeeding.

Others that succeed, and presumably always will in some form, are local 
groups, whatever form they may take, if for nothing else than event 
announcements (and perhaps the occasional gossip), since ultimately 
those are the people with whom you connect most often and people also 
want to know about what's going on around them.

Many have stated, in and out of the survey, "But there is nothing else 
like Tango-L [was]!" and I agree. But Tango had it's Golden Age and so, 
it seems, has Tango-L. The world moves on, as it must, and that's not a 
bad thing.

Feel free to comment on any of this. I haven't made a decision yet on 
keeping the list, but I think the writing is on the wall. However, it 
won't disappear without ample warning. For one, there is work I need to 
do to resurrect the archives, which really is a treasure-trove of 
information, history and discussion, and I won't dissolve the list until 
the archives are set up, if for no other reason than to announce the 
archive location to the list.

Regards,

Shahrukh Merchant
Tango-L administrator