Time for the once a decade Jeremiad?

1. The perfect is the mortal enemy of the good. A= re you sure Lojban needs more fixing (or even all it seems to have gotten)?= Do you have a clear idea what Lojban is supposed to do and have you = really tried to do these things with it? (A large part of what I see = every day, aside from new words, are reinventing the wheel without looking = at the wheels already turning. I know what lacks I see and know how to fix = them fairly easily -- and backward compatibly -- but the next problem gets in the way)= .

2. Who has the authority to make a reasonably final decisio= n on what is a real problem and what is a solution? A person? a= group? the community (how polled?)? Will everybody (anybody) h= eed? Most proposed problems gets solved (several times) fairly quickl= y, then forgotten until (and even after) they come up again. So, wher= e is the record of problems raised and solutions accepted (note: the search= able archives have proven fairly ineffective for this)? And who maint= ains it, if anyone?

3. [Expanding on 1] While learning t= he mechanics of Lojban, no real effort has been made to teach Lojbanism, th= e philosophy (as it were, and in a good sense) behind the language. N= o one is taken in for long by the older saw about testing the Whorf Hypothe= sis and the bit about thinking logically doesn't last much longer (if as long, come to think of it). So people bring all sorts of idea= s or ideals to Lojban and, when it does immediately deal with them, either = quit in disgust or try to fix it, never noting that what they are out to do= is nothing something Lojban was out to do. So many problems are pres= ented and taken seriously that are just beside the point, but are indisting= uishable in their fervor from central ones.

4. While anybody m= ay have a good idea and no one should be censored, some people have track r= ecords that entitle their views to a more careful consideration that Joe Ne= wby's -- even though Joe may eventually turn out to be right. This is= a difficult balancing act but an essential one if progress is not to be co= nstantly diverted by pseudoproblems or wild-eyed (in retrospect) theo= ries.

5. Enough of Lojban is settled syntactically and = semantically to do as a functioning language for 99% of the purposes one might have in mind (much more so than, say, English). More time = might be spent on getting some decent teaching aids going at all level (not= to disparage what there are, but more and more diverse ones are needed).&n= bsp; Prolix Lojban is difficult mainly because of its vocabulary, which has= traditionally been ram-fed, rather than in the modern traditional way.&nbs= p; But as Pimsleur and the like show, you can get a long way with a hundred= words and the basic grammar (both of which are much simpler in Lojban than= in French or -- God help us -- English). If you come to a problem, y= ou can look it up or play around a bit -- getting the message across even i= f the Lojban is a bit iffy. (Toki pona, with 120 words, give or take,= and a half-page grammar, has managed to say just about everything anyone h= as tried to day so far and has managed to be understood at least as well as= my French.)

6. Lojban probably isn/t your life, but work at it proportionally to your sense of commitment.