SEELANGS, R.I.P.?

[Eliot Borenstein]

Dear Comrades in Slavdom,

The current exchange of screeds about Pussy Riot has finally crystalized something for me:  SEELANGS, in its current incarnation, has outlived its usefulness.

When it began in the 1990s, it was a fairly innovative, unprecedented means for Slavists to communicate with each other.  In the nearly two decades that I have been on SEELANGS (may Veles have mercy on me!), I've observed a fairly predictable climate pattern for this list.  For weeks or even months at time, it will be used to exchange information about what might be called "important trivia": details about translations, textbooks, online resources, and breaking news about the fall of the yers.  Then something vaguely political, ideological, or controversial comes up, the trolls come out of hiding, and flame wars ensue.  The the fires are put out, and we're back to discussing stress patterns and pedagogy.

But as the Internet has evolved, much of what has always been annoying about SEELANGS has become almost unbearable.  Because SEELANGS, as an unmoderated list, simply should no longer exist.

I submit that the age of mass-subscriber, unmoderated lists has long since passed.  Many of us are also on the various H-NET lists (particularly H-RUSSIA), and those are largely non-intrusive: they amount to announcements, research queries, and the like.  While complaining about SEELANGS is a common pastime among many Slavists I know, H-RUSSIA doesn't usually excite as much animus. 

The solution is not moderation (at least, not in the administrative sense of the word).  The solution is moving to an entirely different platform. 

Consider this: in the best of times, most of the information exchange on SEELANGS is of an interest to only a small subset of its subscribers.  But we stay on, because we don't want to miss something unpredictably relevant. Eventually a political topic emerges, and, for  a week or so, the list degenerates into competitive victimology.  And many of us get annoyed that our "inboxes are being clogged up" by this stuff.

The problem here is that the material is irrelevant, but not irrelevant enough.  Personally, I read this material with a morbid fascination, and then berate myself for losing time on it.  And I suspect I'm not alone. But think how different the Pussy Riot discussion would have felt if it had been a thread on a blog. On a listserv, it feels like spam.  On a blog, it's just another thread.

A blog would rid us of the many minor irritations that listserv technology inflicts, to wit:

1) Endlessly embedded message threats (really annoying on a portable device).

2) Cyrillic encoding problems (messages that turn into a series of question marks)

3) Painfully embarrassing misaddressed messages (replying to the list instead of the to the post's author)

The objection might be raised that people are unlikely to visit the blog, and will miss valuable information.  This is easily addressed by retaining the skeleton of the SEELANGS list and linking it to the blog.  The blog could, by default, send out daily or weekly summaries of the topics on which there have been postings (not unlike the table of contents in the "digest" setting of the list). 

Social media would be an even better solution, but I don't think the time has come yet.  I suspect there is a significant portion of SEELANGERS who hate Facebook, and would refuse to join (I share their feeling--I only joined Facebook so as not to feel like Grandpa Simpson). Google+ looks to be about as popular as the Microsoft Zune, and if there is no critical mass, there is no point. 

I send this out for consideration--I don't really know how such a thing would be decided or approved.  I'm planning in the not-too-distant future to announce what I hope will be a vibrant and useful web presence for NYU's new Jordan Family Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, but this would obviously not be an appropriate home for an endeavor like SEELANGS. Somehow, the AATSEEL membership should consider the possible options.  But in any case,  I really think it's time to put this creaky old technology to rest.



Eliot Borenstein, Acting Chair
Collegiate Professor	
Professor, Russian & Slavic Studies
Provostial Fellow
New York University		
19 University Place, Room 210
New York, NY 10003
(212) 998-8676 (office)
212-995-4163 (fax)








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