From cbmvax!uunet!grebyn!lojbab Fri Jan 17 18:13:41 1992
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Date: Fri, 17 Jan 92 16:39:21 -0500
From: cbmvax!uunet!grebyn.com!lojbab (Logical Language Group)
Message-Id: <9201172139.AA13952@daily.grebyn.com>
To: nsn@mullian.ee.Mu.OZ.AU
Subject: Re: Wallops of Translations #2
Cc: cowan@snark.thyrsus.com
Status: RO

You misunderstand re Nora - i is not that she got her teeth blunted on the
text, but that she got partly through it before the combination of Lojban 
burnout and work-related stress caused her to decide to minimize Lojban
work for a while.  Since roughly October, she has reviewed a couple of
drafts of John's paper and little more.

I'm sorry if it seems that we are giving up on the language here - we are not
by any means.  There is some degree of burnout, but the bottom line is that
1) most of our Lojbanic effort goes into the conversation sessions
2) because you and others are writing so much Lojban, I have much less 
pressure to produce new written stuff
3) what time I have, I tend to spend trying to keep up with reviewing other
people's stuff and getting it in JL-able shape.  But lately, it seems that
I don;t have time for that except when I actually am putting a JL together.

I put a lot of work into getting the older stuff brought up to the point where
it could go on PLS.  My job right now is to get books out and other
publications.  The Board practically ordered me a year ago NOT to spend time
on translations, etc., but rather to work to keep our promises and make it more
likely that others can write translations.

Athelstan has done little more than Nora - he is at best flaky in his time
commitments,and it is all I can do to get him to come to conversation sessions
and maybe do a little bit on the side - but it has been a year now that he has
worked on the mini-lesson and it still is in the draft form I posted in
October.  He has said that he expects to do more when he has a computer, and
one of my projects is to get my old machine (conveniently donated to LLG)
back up and in use by him.  He will probably do some wirting and some review.

Sylvia is on Lojban List, but has never even posted anything, and I'm not
sure how much she has tried to read.  Again, she puts her efforts into
keeping the conversation session going, and having a boy friend with no
Lojban interst sucks out much of her interest.  (Though perhaps I should
suggest that you writedirectly to her in Lojban - she might respond to that
if you don;t overwhelm her)

The rest of the community here is dormant - I've got 120 people in the DC area
and I can;t even get them to come to conversation sessions, and most don;t
even come to LogFest.  The reason - these people are the ones who have been
waiting longest for the textbook, and won;t show much new interest until we
show that we can produce a result.

For mostpeople, learning Lojban will take either a very good textbook or some
other person devoting a significant effort to teaching them.  You are more
likel;y to gain a sralo Lojbanist based on the latter before I manage to
stir more effective local volunteer work around here.

lojbab