Message-ID: <471F9B38.6090104@lojban.org>
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 15:21:28 -0400
From: Robert LeChevalier <lojbab@lojban.org>
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To:  lojban-beginners@lojban.org
Subject: [lojban-beginners] Re: usefulness
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Jared Angell wrote:
> I think your entire reply was sound except for one point: just because
> slashdot had one article about Lojban 7 years doesn't make the
> slashdot community aware of it.  The slashdot community is aware of
> Linux.

Linux has a much bigger piece of a much larger market.

 > That's the kind of aware we should shoot for with Lojban,

No.

> since Lojban is, after all, basically the linguistic equivilent of a
> Linux or a Wikipedia at this point.

Not in the least.  Lojban isn't a linguistic equivalent of much of anything.

> Finally, I was not aware that the growth was so significant.  It did
> not come off that way to me as I investigated the community.

We don't make a big deal of it, because numbers don't really matter 
much.  As another poster said, a few really serious learners would be 
much more important than thousands of, umm, dilettantes (for want of a 
better word).

> BTW, you asked me who the language is useful to.  I beleive that the
> answer is the set of all human beings who speak imprecise languages.

No.  Because the vast majority of them have no interest in learning ANY 
other language, and will never have such interest, and no language is 
useful unless it is learned.

> As for Utopia and what it means in latin, why would you doom your own
> charity project of the mind which you have invested a sizable
> percentage of your life in by implying that there will never we a
> community of Lojban speakers???

I didn't say that there never will be such a community.

> Bob, I do not mean you any disrespect whatsoever.  I am, in my own
> way, trying to help.

To help: learn the language.  Use the language.  When you've done so for 
a year or two and know what others are doing, you'll have more 
credibility.

There is no shortage of ideas on how to spread Lojban.  There is a gross 
shortage of person-hours.

> I have things in mind to do in my own way to see
> this goal come to fruition but I do still feel that this should be an
> open topic and that this topic being discussion should not be
> perceived as an afrontment to you.

You have a long way to go to be so-perceived.  But I am honestly saying 
that more will be willing to jump on your bandwagon, when you shown you 
are learning the language and sticking with it.

> I do not know Lojban yet, I only understand it's concepts and grammar,

If so, then you are ahead of 99% of us.  I don't claim to understand all 
of its concepts and grammar, and I am labeled "Founder".

> so I cannot yet translate things into it.  But rest assured when I can
> speak Lojban I intend to write and translate philosophy into it.  That
> is my own vested interest.

Go right ahead.  But be aware that the market for philosophical writings 
in Lojban is probably only slightly larger than one person.

Indeed, I suspect that this is one thing that has slowed the development 
of a Lojban community - about the only thing we all have in common is an 
interest in the language.  Finding something to talk *about* has always 
been a challenge.

The early speakers of Modern Hebrew had something that they all shared 
in common to talk about; we don't.

lojbab