IF YOU POST TO TANGO-A, PLEASE READ THIS!!
(If you are a reader of Tango-A who never posts, you don't need to worry
about this, but you may choose to read on to understand the use of the
geographical prefixes if you wish to take advantage of them.)
Owing to a combination of (a) forgetfullness or (b) laziness (to read
the posting instructions or (c) slopiness (typos) or (d) small changes
to the way the geographical prefix works since the list was moved to the
current server about a year ago, an increasing number of postings are
using this incorrectly, with the result that their postings are not
being distributed as they probably intended or would like.
April 30 was a particularly extreme example, where only 1 of 6 postings
had correctly formatted subject lines:
Here they are, with explanations as to what's wrong with each.
1. NA-W, NA-C, NA-E: UTango - A Spring Celebration of Tango
First of all, this should have only ONE geographical region since the
event is happening only at one place (in this case it should have been
NA-W:). In addition, the new listserver NO LONGER SUPPORTS multiple
locations, so you MUST choose the ONE correct or most appropriate one.
The correct form should have been:
Subject: NA-W: UTango - A Spring Celebration of Tango
2. NA-W: Tango in the Square ... Union Square Park, San
Francisco - 1st Sunday of each month for the summer.
This was the one correct one out of 6.
3. Early registration reminder for Paradiso and Mandragora Tango
Orquestra, Medford, MA
This had no geographical prefix so it ended up going only to the small
subset of people who subscribe to the Digest version of the list.
The correct form should have been:
Subject: NA-E: Early registration reminder for Paradiso and Mandragora
Tango Orquestra, Medford, MA
4. NA-W/ Santa Fe Tango Ensemble
It's picky about syntax. / won't work instead of :
The correct form should have been:
Subject: NA-W: Santa Fe Tango Ensemble
5. May events in Providence
Same as No. 3 above. The correct form should have been:
Subject: NA-E: May events in Providence
6. (Tango-A ) AN-E: Neo- Tango Festival de Montr?al, Canada
The subject must START with NA-E: (don't put (Tango-A) in front nor
"Re:" nor "Fwd:" etc. And of course AN-E: doesn't work.
The correct form should have been:
Subject: NA-E: Neo-Tango Festival de Montreal, Canada
One important thing for all posters to note: Most subscribers don't
bother to change the default ("All Topics") so as long as you put ANY
correct prefix, most readers will receive it. And even if they do opt
out of certain regions, they are bound to include both regions if they
live within Tango-ing distance of two regions. So don't agonize too much
about which one to put if your event is close to the border between two
regions. But if you don't put any, or if it's incorrectly formatted,
then only a MUCH SMALLER number of subscribers who use the Digest will
get it.
The defined gepgraphical "topics" are:
SA: South America.
NA-E: Eastern North America (essentially areas in the Eastern and
Atlantic time zones)
NA-C: Central North America (essentially areas in the Central and
Mountain time zones)
NA-W: Western North America (essentially areas in the Pacific Time zone)
EU-W: Western Europe.
EU-E: Eastern Europe.
AASP: Asia, Africa and South Pacific.
MISC: In addition, a MISC topic exists, that should only be used when
there is no fit for any of the other topics, i.e., when it is an
announcement that, by its nature is not geographically oriented. E.g.,
announcement of a new source for purchase of Tango music on the Internet.
ADMIN: This is a special topic for use for postings by the administrator
only, for important administrative information about Tango-A. IMPORTANT:
If you ever change the topics your are subscribed to, make sure that you
never remove the ADMIN topic as you could miss the infrequent but
important administrative messages!
A detailed discussion about topics (including how subscribers may select
to receive only announcements about areas that interest them) can be
found at http://tango-l.com/tango-A-rules.htm#Topics
You may also wish to browse http://Tango-L.com/, which has been recently
updated significantly to be more useful and complete, with a FAQ for
common problems (unsubscription problems, posting didn't show up, etc.).
Regards,
Shahrukh Merchant
Tango-A/-L administrator
[email protected]
