[Tango-L] ADMIN: Tango-A posts should now be made to Tango-L

[Shahrukh Merchant]

Effective immediately, please make all future posts on Tango event 
announcements to Tango-L instead of Tango-A.

Tango-A members who are not subscribed to Tango-L (the majority are) 
will need to subscribe manually to Tango-L if they wish to continue 
receiving Tango-A posts. They will NOT automatically be added on 
Tango-L! See http://tango-l.com/#Subscribe for instructions on 
subscribing, but in brief, you can either:
- Go to http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-L and fill in your 
information there (recommended method), or
- Send an email to Tango-L-request at mit.edu with the word SUBSCRIBE in 
the subject filed and/or body (alternative method).

Tango-A will be discontinued for posting effective 1 June 2015 (in a 
couple of days). Essentially, the idea is to merge Tango-A back with 
Tango-L since there isn't enough volume on Tango-A to justify continuing 
the list as a separate entity.

This message is being copied to the Tango-L list so that those on that 
list know to expect Tango-A posts there.

The convention on the subject prefix should be retained. This will be a 
good way of instantly identifying Tango event announcements (vs. Tango 
discussion). As a reminder, the subject prefix, to be used for 
geographically oriented event announcements, or other commercial posts 
(e.g., sale of Tango shoes or books), are:

SA: South America
NA-E: North America (Eastern)
NA-C: North America (Central)
NA-W: North America (Western)
EU-W: Europe (Western)
EU-E: Europe (Eastern)
AASP: Asia, Africa, South Pacific/Oceania (basically "rest of world")
MISC: For commercial posts that don't have a particular geography

Remember that this applies to where the even it being HELD, and only ONE 
should be used. In the past, this could affect the distribution of the 
post (people had the option of subscribing to certain "topics") but now 
this is strictly a convention and visual aid, and will not affect the 
distribution in any way (all subscribers will get all posts).

Q&A
---
Q. What will happen to the membership list?

A. The list will be deleted from the MIT servers in due course (in a few 
days I expect, once I tell them to go ahead and do so). I will keep a 
personal copy of this list, but I don't expect to use it.

Q. Can I get a copy of the membership list?

A. No, it and is not for distribution or sale. However, if you are a 
Tango organizer, or wish to maintain your own Tango event list (or are 
looking for a lost tango friend who you suspect is on Tango-A, etc.), 
you are free to post to Tango-A (not to Tango-L in this case) in the 
next couple of days (before it is closed to postings) soliciting members 
who wish to add themselves to your private list to email you privately 
with a request to do so (or via whatever other automatic subscription 
mechanism you may have). Or if you have some other reason for contacting 
everyone on the Tango-A list, go ahead and send an email (again just to 
Tango-A in this case, not Tango-L) in the next day or so before the list 
is closed--don't worry too much about the posting rules and such.

Q. What about the archives?

A. Yes, there are archives which will be maintained indefinitely. There 
will be a separate post on this shortly. I have recently arranged two 
archival sites for all previous Tango-A posts, and in fact was waiting 
for that to complete before closing Tango-A (merging it back with Tango-L).

Q. So I can make all my Tango-A posts on Tango-L now? Which posting 
rules apply--the Tango-L ones or the Tango-A ones?

A. Yes, you may continue to make your Tango-A posts as before; just send 
them to Tango-L at mit.edu instead. Use the Tango-A posting rules (though 
really, inappropriate posts on Tango-A have been very rare and 
essentially a non-issue, so you don't need to go rushing over to reread 
the rules).

Q. There was talk about Tango-L being shut down too. Does this mean 
Tango-L is not going to be closed?

A. No it doesn't ... Just that it doesn't make sense for both to be 
around given the low volume on both lists, and it's more logical to 
merge Tango-A into Tango-L rather than the other way around. Tango-L is 
still "on probation" in terms of the value of keeping it around, but for 
now I'm adopting a "wait and see" attitude on it.

Q. I can't remember if I'm on Tango-L. Can't you just check for us and 
merge the lists?

A. I could, but (a) most people who are on one are on the other anyway 
(b) this filters out those who can't be bothered to subscribe 
(considering it takes perhaps 20 seconds) as they probably aren't that 
interested in being on the list anyway. At any rate, if you're on 
Tango-L, you'd know it since you'd have received some emails in the last 
day or two (there's been recent activity on that list). And if you 
follow the instructions to subscribe to Tango-L and you're already on 
the list, it will just tell you that.

Q. What is all this Tango-A vs. Tango-L stuff anyway? I have no idea 
what you are talking about. I'm on [Tango-L | Tango-A] and didn't even 
know there was another list!

A. See www.tango-L.com for a description of the two lists and their 
relationship.

Q. I have some other question about the lists.

A. Check the FAQ at www.tango-L.com. If you don't find an answer, send 
an email to tango-L-owner at mit.edu. If it's a question of widespread 
interest, I'll post the reply to the list.

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