Subject: Re: [lojban] META : Who is everyone (and what are they saying)

From: And Rosta <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 18:36:10 +0100

Lojbab:
#On one extreme we have Michael Helsem, whose poetic efforts at Lojban set a 
#very non-hardline extreme of usage. But that extreme clearly is NOT 
#driving usage because few users emulate Michael. More of them try to 
#emulate xod, or Jorge, or Nick, who each have their own styles that are 
#more or less logically rigorous. At the other extreme is And, who has not 
#for the most part mirrored Michael by presenting us with a usage that 
#reflects his image of the language.

There are several reasons why I write so little Lojban, but there is one reason
in particular why I don't try to influence others' usage through my own. This
reason is that there is no mechanism for abbreviation, for creating more 
concise locutions that do not increase vagueness. There is no 'Zipf valve'
-- no mechanism for shortening locutions whose length is not appropriately
proportional to their frequency. 
My usage would obviously be aiming for clarity and precision, but it would be 
intolerably cumbersome and syllableful -- too cumbersome and syllableful for 
anybody to want to emulate it or for me to find much appeal in it.

I appreciate the way Jorge seeks to find the stylistically optimal balance
between elegance and precision, within the established constraints
of Lojban grammar, but I myself can't bring myself to accept the
necessary compromises.

--And.