Renaming doesn't seem a bad idea if the emphasis is on the wider agenda of
traditional song  -  as long as it doesn't bother the ballad specialists who
had the bright idea of setting up a list in the first place.

I would suggest, however, that the use of the short name 'Tradsong' could
cause some confusion since it is already the shortform for the Traditional
Song Forum who have www.tradsong.com registered.  Though, having said that,
the ducks are all in a row as far as objectives of the list versus TSF are
concerned.  And, of course, many TSF mamebers are subscribers to this
ist  -  and Steve Roud is, of course, it's Chair.

Martin Graebe


----- Original Message -----
From: "roud" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2002 4:25 PM
Subject: Fw: Renaming & re-launching the list??


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: roud <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, January 25, 2002 4:05 PM
> Subject: Renaming & re-launching the list??
>
>
> > Dear friends & colleagues
> >
> > Apologies for the length of this message. If you read nothing else,
please
> > read the RECOMMENDATION at the end.
> >
> > A short while ago I emailed various people in the song-research
field(s),
> > suggesting a way of improving communication between song researchers. In
> > particular I was looking for:
> > (1) A way of asking questions of colleagues in traditional song
research,
> > knowing that the message would reach a wide range of knowledgeable and
> > interested people
> > (2) A way of knowing that some people expert in fields related to
> > traditional song (e.g. 'music hall') were also receiving my requests for
> > help or information
> > (3) A way of announcing projects/books/recordings, etc., of interest to
> the
> > community, and receiving such announcements from others.
> >
> > Responses were mostly positive in that anything we can do to help
> > communication would be welcome; but many were understandably cautious
> about
> > a seemingly elitist/exclusive approach, and about duplicating resources.
> >
> > There are already two BALLAD lists; both are nominally international but
> one
> > is basically American and the other basically British/European. Neither
is
> > restricted to 'ballads' as such. Some people subscribe to both. The
> American
> > list is much more lively, at least in the number of messages posted,
with
> > several new messages arriving every day.
> >
> > However, I have found a great deal of confusion, especially in Britain -
> > many people were unaware of the existence of the 'other' list, and had
> > assumed that they were addressing the whole community rather than part
of
> > it. The fact that the two lists have the same name is at the root of the
> > problem, but also the range of subscribers, and therefore the content,
is
> > patchy. Certainly, for my needs, not enough British scholars are on the
> > American list, and vice versa, and almost a third of the people I
> originally
> > emailed were not on either list.
> >
> > Some people - especially those in peripheral fields - are put off by the
> > term 'ballad', and read it in a much more narrow/exclusive sense than
many
> > of us do. We're all pretty used to semantic problems in our field, but
> > looking at the list of subscribers to the British list, I can see few
who
> > are ONLY interested in 'ballads', and most are interested, to some
extent
> at
> > least, in the wider 'folk song' field.
> >
> > This latter point emboldens me to suggest the following:
> >
> > RECOMMENDATION
> >
> > 1) We re-name the (UK) ballad list to something broader in scope - I
> suggest
> > TRADITIONAL SONG RESEARCH (or, if necessary FOLK SONG RESEARCH, but I
> prefer
> > the former)
> > 2) We try to re-invigorate the list, to get the ball rolling, by
actively
> > encouraging known colleagues to subscribe
> > 3) We actively seek to recruit subscribers from allied and overlapping
> > fields
> > 4) Our 'welcome message' explains that whereas 'traditional song' is our
> > core interest, we are particularly interested in reaching an
> > inter-disciplinary community
> > 5) Our 'welcome message' specifically recommends the (American) Ballad
> List,
> > and other such lists we can find, as of potential interest, and we
> regularly
> > remind subscribers of their existence.
> >
> > Please comment
> >
> > Regards
> > Steve Roud
> >
> >
> >