bpfk vs jbovlaste

[Nick Nicholas <opoudjis@optushome.com.au>]

Another diplomatic success, I see. :-1/2

Look, I have nothing but contempt for exptal gismu (as distinct from 
exptal cmavo), and my vote on any dictionary produced under bpfk 
auspices would be to either leave them out, or include heavy 
disclaimers and canonical alternatives. And I'm reasonably confident 
that peer pressure from other Lojbanists will be the most effective way 
of policing this.

But jbovlaste was not initially intended to be an arm of the bpfk, and 
the bpfk is nowhere near undertaking any review of it. Furthermore, 
those seditious, baseline-undermining souls who have been entering 
exptal gismu have nonetheless had the courtesy to clearly label them as 
such -- for which I am grateful. If you don't understand the difference 
between experimental gismu and canonical gismu when looking up a 
dictionary, you have no business using the dictionary in the first 
place. (What the hell, do we think people will be using jbovlaste 
successfully without first understanding such basic concepts? That 
beginners will be using the dictionary before they read its preface?)

And the bottom line is, if people want canonical expressions for 
'parasite', they have to propose them to jbovlaste, and give people a 
canonical alternative. The bpfk in my view has the same task with 
Jorge's non-baseline usages. I think Jorge is damaging Lojban by 
deviating from the baseline, but if I am to combat this legitimately, I 
need to provide Jorge with baseline-compatible alternatives, so that he 
can say what he legitimately needs to say. Right now, the onus is on 
the fundamentalist, not the revisionist, to prove that the baseline 
version of the language really is as expressive as the revisionists 
want it to be.

If you don't like parji on jbovlaste, saying jbovlaste is useless is 
not going to be particularly effective. Jay has done the right thing by 
cordoning off experimental qua experimental; we know what status that 
confers, and we will decide what that will mean for any future 
publications, and to what extent the LLG polices canonicity or not in 
its publications.

I'm still recovering from the flu, so no bpfk work from me this weekend 
either. :-( Good thing semester's over next week...

____.____1____.____2____.____3____.____4____.____5____.____6____.____7__
When in doubt,  Dr Nick Nicholas,      French & Italian Studies,
  ---   DOUBT!  nickn@unimelb.edu.au                University of
        (- me)  http://www.opoudjis.net             Melbourne, Australia