Blog Notes

I've created this blog after reading a thread on Tango-L about public constructive feedback and critiques on Tango Teachers.

And, by all means, please leave detailed accounts of positive experiences - we want to know who the best teachers are, and the best of the best.

Please keep your comments brief, Blogger only allows 4000 characters. Leave two comments in a row if you need to, I suppose.

Please keep your comments positive, constructive, and healthy. If you're pissed off about something, sleep on it and come back tomorrow. Any vitriol or otherwise really nasty negative comments will be deleted. Try your best to use positive, constructive language even for negative feedback.

Give me some time to get this thing up and running, with all the teacher's (worldwide) names. I'll need to figure out how to alphabetize and provide links in the margin so you can quickly find your teachers and leave a comment.

I'll include Traditional, Nuevo, Fantasia - anything Argentine Tango - but no ballroom teachers.

Starting out with International/Festival level teachers...will gradually add local/city teachers around the world...or should that be a different blog...?

The next post will be for people to leave the names of teachers they would like to see included in the blog. Just leave a comment and I'll get them in there.

The post after that will be for your "worst teacher stories ever".

I have disabled Anonymous commenting and invoked comment moderation, to avoid any abuse.

Comments/Feedback on this blog? Leave 'em here.

Gracias!

P.S. I could use some help with this...let me know and I'll make you and admin...

P.P.S. Same guidelines here as on Tango-L...

For the record, negative reviews (including naming of the persons or
events in question) are explicitly permitted on Tango-L, subject to
requirements to prevent abuse (which requirements seem to have been
followed in this case).

See this rule at
http://tango-l.com/tango-L-rules.htm#RELEVANCE-NegativeReviews

A paraphrased excerpt is:

Negative reviews of a particular teacher or event are permitted as a
potential service to the Tango community, even if individuals are named.
However, to prevent abuse of this exception as a way for people to
campaign negatively against people they don't like, or their
competitors, these reviews must meet ALL the following criteria:

- Name and tango community of poster must be identified to prevent
anonymous postings (e.g., someone hiding behind a pseudonym);

- Must have had direct and personal experience with the teacher/event in
question (i.e., not hearsay or second-hand opinions);

- Specific and objective details should be included (just saying
"terrible teachers," for example, is not enough).

When these are followed, as was the case here, it is indeed a service to
the community. This does not preclude others from putting forth
counter-examples or differences of opinions, nor does it *require* that
the persons in question be named if the poster wishes to avoid doing so
out of a sense of delicacy (though it does permit naming as well).

Tango-L and Tango-A administrator
tango-l-owner@mit.edu
Labels:

7 comments:

AlexTangoFuego said...

Same guidelines here as on Tango-L...

For the record, negative reviews (including naming of the persons or
events in question) are explicitly permitted on Tango-L, subject to
requirements to prevent abuse (which requirements seem to have been
followed in this case).

See this rule at
http://tango-l.com/tango-L-rules.htm#RELEVANCE-NegativeReviews

A paraphrased excerpt is:

Negative reviews of a particular teacher or event are permitted as a
potential service to the Tango community, even if individuals are named.
However, to prevent abuse of this exception as a way for people to
campaign negatively against people they don't like, or their
competitors, these reviews must meet ALL the following criteria:

- Name and tango community of poster must be identified to prevent
anonymous postings (e.g., someone hiding behind a pseudonym);

- Must have had direct and personal experience with the teacher/event in
question (i.e., not hearsay or second-hand opinions);

- Specific and objective details should be included (just saying
"terrible teachers," for example, is not enough).

When these are followed, as was the case here, it is indeed a service to
the community. This does not preclude others from putting forth
counter-examples or differences of opinions, nor does it *require* that
the persons in question be named if the poster wishes to avoid doing so
out of a sense of delicacy (though it does permit naming as well).

Tango-L and Tango-A administrator
tango-l-owner@mit.edu

June 14, 2009 at 1:48 AM
Anonymous said...

An interesting idea, even though I believe we should collect data about teachers (i.e. where they are, what styles they teach, how well) in a more databasy fashion, i.e. searchable and sortable…

www.tangoteacherdirectory.com ? ;)

Maybe Tobias of tango.info might have an idea or would like to open his database for such a feature?

June 14, 2009 at 7:50 AM
AlexTangoFuego said...

Thanks onestep...

I was actually thinking the same thing as I was doing the data entry last night, er...this morning.

I (and those who wish to help) will be developing this thing further, by adding the teacher's home base city after their name, and adding their city to the "Labels". The down side is that the cities would be mixed in with the names on the right. Not a real big deal.

The next step would be to add the teachers websites, with a short summary indicating their dancing style, teaching style, etc. Perhaps we could even add YouTube videos.

There's a box at the upper left, very top of the blog page, where users can enter their search criteria - say "paris nuevo" and pull up all the teachers based in Paris who are more Nuevo teachers.

Something like that. I think it will work.

We shall see.

Lots of work, so I'm looking for volunteers to help.

June 14, 2009 at 8:18 AM
Syarzhuk said...

Instead of adding a city like 'New York' add it like 'City:New York'. This way all the city labels will nicely sort together

June 14, 2009 at 8:56 AM
Henry (@knowtango.com) said...

@Alex and @onestep,

I agree that a searchable teacher directory would be an incredible resource.

Right now, KnowTango is the single largest database of teachers, organizers, and DJs, and we are building the interface for this search functionality and directory right now. In our system, each teacher, DJ, and organizer (as well as each event and venue) will have their own auto-populated profile with a profile-specific map, calendar, website link and notes.

As soon as we have the profiles up and running, we'll begin coding the rating feature where users will be able rate and review tango professionals (not just teachers) as well as rate other reviews. Such a system dynamically lifts and weighs heavier the most useful (highest rated) ratings to automate the screening of worthless comments.

Anyways, I applaud your efforts because this is certainly a very needed item in the global tango community. We will be building the profiles for another month or two, but I'd love to think about a way of porting the comments and reviews from here.

Great idea, I'm right there with you.

June 14, 2009 at 12:32 PM
Anonymous said...

Hello!!! tangoteacherreviews.blogspot.com is one of the best resourceful websites of its kind. I take advantage of reading it every day. All the best.

December 29, 2009 at 11:10 PM
Anonymous said...

The author of tangoteacherreviews.blogspot.com has written an excellent article. You have made your point and there is not much to argue about. It is like the following universal truth that you can not argue with: The keyboard is mightier than the pen, and the pen is mightier than the sword, but the atom bomb kicks ass... Thanks for the info.

January 23, 2010 at 5:16 PM

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