The end of TAC?

[Mohave]

I'd be interested in a Romance languages group. I've been studying French for the last 2 1/2 years, and am now ready to start Spanish.

[jeff_lindqvist]

FWIW i definitely didn't mean combining Slavic and Germanic/Scandinavian languages

Oops, I must have read it like a D&D multiclass (à la cleric/ranger/thief).

Anyway, I must do something about with Dutch and Russian, and the sooner, the better. I even have people to speak them to.

[galaxyrocker]

Actually, guys, I'm going to have to apologize. On second thought, I'm not going to have the time to really organize a group. I've just been busier than I expected this last week and don't expect it to lighten up for a few more weeks. If there's still interest I can create it then however.

[Josquin]

Does Team Pushkin even exist still?

How dare you?! Of course, the glorious Team Pushkin still exists! We will never surrender! *evil Russian laugh*

But jokes aside, you're absolutely right. The July crisis has dealt the final blow to most TAC teams and this personally annoys me, as it took me a lot of work to organize this year's TAC in the first place. Being the captain of Team Pushkin, I tried to keep the team alive after we moved to the new forum, but it simply wasn't possible as most members didn't make the move with us. Of 20 initial members, there are only five or so left who are more or less active on this forum.

I think we all underestimated the dividing power the move to a new forum would have, as a lot of very active and informative members from HTLAL neither moved here nor kept posting on the old site but simply stopped posting altogether (most notably: Chung). It's difficult to keep a team going when you lose such valuable and active members as fabriciocarraro or Solfrid Cristin.

I must admit I haven't been as active as captain of Team Pushkin as I could have been because of a shift of interest in my studies (I haven't been studying Russian for quite some time now), but I would have kept the team going if there had been enough members who had shown some interest. Leading a TAC team isn't a one man show, although it certainly feels like it sometimes. You're very much dependent on the interest and enthusiasm of your team members.

Be that as it may, I'm with Teango here when I say that I would hate to see the TAC disappear. To me, it was the heart and soul of the old forum. It was a way to connect with other learners, to find friends as a newbie, and to learn from more experienced learners. I simply loved it! Choosing your TAC teams in December came close to opening your presents on Christmas Eve (Yeah, we Germans do it on Christmas Eve. If you're British or American, just pretend I said Christmas Day), and I will never forget the Skype meetings, which were exciting and scary at the same time.

And it seems I wasn't alone with this feeling, as the TAC always attracted a lot of newbies. Granted, most of them disappeared after two months, but some of them kept going and became regular members of the forum (such as myself). And just for the record, I loved that the TAC wasn't about some Twitter bot that needed to be fed (which BTW favours quantity over quality), but left room for your personal goals and ambitions. Following your own goals with the support of other people. What could be better than this?

I don't know if study groups can fully replace the TAC, as the competition used to be part of the fun. Nothing can replace the thrill of the December frenzy when everybody tried to accomplish their old goals while already preparing for the new TAC. Now, call me nostalgic or even childish, but I really loved this enthusiasm! I only wished more of this enthusiasm would have kept going on longer throughout the year.

So, what I'm saying is this. We lost the old forum, we lost a great deal of very productive members (granted, we also attracted new ones), so don't let us lose the best thing HTLAL had to offer as well. The TAC wasn't about reading 10,000 pages in six months (BTW, how's the Super Challenge doing?), it wasn't about annihilating anything either (although its name said so). The TAC was about fun with languages and other people and this I really miss.

PS: I didn't read the entire thread. If I brought up something which has already been fully dicussed, please forgive me. Thank you.

EDIT: If a Celtic team/study group/whatever came to life, I'd like to be part of it.

[Brun Ugle]

It looks like I probably won't be going away for those two weeks in December after all, so it probably wouldn't be any problem for me to organize the TAC this time if no one else wants to organize it. It sounds like people are still interested in having a TAC, so we might as well give it a try.

I suggest people start deciding on teams and captains to begin with. And then it would probably be best to post a signup thread with links to the team logs both here and on the old forum so that those who haven't made the move know where we are.

[river]

I'd be interested in a TAC team or study group for East Asian languages. I'm studying Mandarin and Korean.

[garyb]

I'll be definitely checking out the Italian group, but tbh I'm not sure it makes sense for me to join it. I'd be more of a followeer/observer maybe

Like I say my idea was a very informal group just to share resources, tips, experiences, etc. so anybody with an interest in the language would be welcome. In fact I'm not even sure that making it a "group" is sensible: I don't see the point in having a list of members. I'm more just thinking a sort of Italian thread that anyone can contribute to. Anyway I'll do a bit more thinking and fleshing out of ideas once I have a bit more time.

I'd be very interested in joining a traditional TAC group focused on Italian!

I'm not planning to participate in the TAC or any kind of serious team, so I'm out for that one I'm afraid. But if there is a TAC team I'll certainly follow with interest.

[amyhere]

I'd be interested in a TAC team or study group for East Asian languages. I'm studying Mandarin and Korean.

I'd be up for this as well with Mandarin.

[Brun Ugle]

I’ve been looking through this thread and so far it seems like there is a lot of muttering along the lines of, «I’d love to join a group for _______ language, but I don’t want to be in charge.» Except for Tomgosse’s French group (which may or may not be a TAC group, I’m not sure) there doesn’t seem to be anyone interested in actually taking on the responsibility of starting any groups. Of course, it’s still early, not even December, so maybe people are waiting for closer to the start of the year. Anyway, here’s a list of potential teams that people have expressed an interest in joining:

French
Italian
Esperanto
Spanish
Spanish/German
Germanic including Scandinavian
Russian
Serbo-Croatian
Slavic
Celtic
East Asian

I might have missed some. And in any case, none of these are definite teams and some were perhaps suggestions for study-groups. I’m just listing up what has been suggested.

[tomgosse]

I’ve been looking through this thread and so far it seems like there is a lot of muttering along the lines of, «I’d love to join a group for _______ language, but I don’t want to be in charge.» Except for Tomgosse’s French group (which may or may not be a TAC group, I’m not sure) there doesn’t seem to be anyone interested in actually taking on the responsibility of starting any groups. Of course, it’s still early, not even December, so maybe people are waiting for closer to the start of the year. Anyway, here’s a list of potential teams that people have expressed an interest in joining:

French
Italian
Esperanto
Spanish
Spanish/German
Germanic including Scandinavian
Russian
Serbo-Croatian
Slavic
Celtic
East Asian

I might have missed some. And in any case, none of these are definite teams and some were perhaps suggestions for study-groups. I’m just listing up what has been suggested.

Two points:
First, I did not call the group I started a TAC because I never could see a consensus if people wanted a TAC. So, the group is open to all members of all levels. If some want to do a Challenge with each other (read ten thousand French novels in year ), that's fine. If some want to find a study-buddy to complete a course with, that's fine. Right now it seems that most members just want to do their own study and observe others, and that's also fine.

Second, I looked at our membership numbers and found that we have 493 members. Of those, just about fifty have more than 100 posts. Another 150 to 200 have less posts than that and most members have no posts at all. So, and this is my best guestimate, we will have a pool of maybe 100 members who will be active in the forum. I think that means that any one TAC or study group for any specific language will only ever have a few members. Most people will only follow along. It rdearman of the moderators have any other figures on membership that may help clarify this.