Re: [lojban] Re: livejournal discrimination

["Matt Arnold" <matt.mattarn@gmail.com>]

As conlangers, we tend to be non-conformists, and yet language is all
about conformity. Language is a public participatory activity, so
learning an artificial language when there is no one else to speak it
with is kind of like secession. Every artificial language is a
linguistic ghetto. Therefore, it should come as no surprise to us that
artificial langauges constantly attract people who will secede from
our tiny self-segregated ghetto, into a language spoken by only one
person.

I suggest that one person is too few. In order to have a fun hobby, if
your hobby is an interpersonal activity such as language, you need
several dozen participants at least.

Lojban is uniquely vulnerable to the pursuit of perfection at the cost
of interoperability. Lokadin is the latest reformer among countless.
Eventually Lokadin will realize that no one is reading what he writes
in Lojban because there do not exist a sufficiently large number of
expert Lojbanists yet. The only way to acheive that would be
consistent conformity, so that it is easier for beginners to learn
Lojban. By not conforming to the standard, Lokadin is not contributing
to the goal of expertise that would make it possible to deviate from
that standard and still be widely understood. When he realizes that,
Lojban will cease to be any fun for him. He might change to conform to
our standard. Or he might leave. But I doubt he will speak his private
language for long.

-Eppcott