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

[Michael]

Newbies consider themselves pioneers. Even though the path is well trodden,
it's still new to them. I belong to www.dance-forums.com. I have to go to
the website to look over topics and decide if I want to read the thread and
join in the conversation. Tango L was a mailman that delivered topics to my
front door. Some of the topics were junk mail and some were very
interesting.

There may be 1200 on the mailing list but I suspect the true number is
probably lower because it probably includes inactive email addresses. An
inactive email address doesn't always generate an undeliverable message.
People are lazy and didn't take the time to unsubscribe.

The Golden Age of Tango is over but the music isn't forgotten. There are
other discussion venues but that doesn't mean Tango L is irrelevant. 

If Tango L continues, I will post a message to www.dance-forums.com that
Tango L has risen like the phoenix. List members can send a similar message
to groups they belong.

Michael
Came home to New York where the Argentine Tango is better


-----Original Message-----
From: Shahrukh Merchant
Sent: Monday, April 13, 2015 6:44 PM

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