Subject: word for "www" (was: Archive location.)

From: Invent Yourself <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 11:56:42 -0400 (EDT)

la robin pu cusku di'e

> ralcku could be a library.

Robin, now it occurs to me that you were attempting a reductio ad
absurdum. However, it failed to make its point because I had incorrectly
assumed that you had read and understood my original post. On principle I
will not repeat what I have already posted (and also out of practicality,
because what was ignored once can be ignored twice), but will offer this
much: my original post did note a feature of distinction between libraries
and the web, and in ignoring it your reductio falls apart.

Everyone, I've been using the word "cukta" to mean roughly: a collection
of documents and/or pages. I don't believe that I have yet heard an
argument that contradicts this by adding more restrictions to the
definition which are derived from the place structures, and not simply
induced from the stereotypical "book". This includes Mark's reservations,
the most cogent thus far. If a book is roughly a collection of pages, then
the web roughly appears as a single book, with the added benefit of the
malglico argument (completely irrelevant, but what seems to inspire
respect in this discussion) that the object which appears in the browser,
and is at this moment in history usually a single html file, is also
referred to in English as "a page".

The blurriness of the distinction between individual but linked
collections of these pages is a clue that we are dealing with a mass, and
that we could be aiming for something like lei {hypertext pages}. However,
this unnecessarily restricts us to hypertext pages, or forces us into a
lengthy and impotent discussion concerning which objects do or can
constitute web resources. Good luck finding a lujvo for "web resource"
that passes your test of being decomposable and understandable without
context.

Also, it neglects the unique, singleton nature of the WWW. (There is only
one WWW, but there can be any number of masses of web resources in
existence.)

"la ralcku" can be used, sidestepping this whole discussion. And "le"
leaves such room for latitude that in practice and with the publicity
generated by this discussion, "le ralcku" can surely be used with
understanding now.

On a parallel note, it's interesting that the people who were around when
the notion of lujvo was being developed have a quite different
understanding of the intent behind lujvo than those who came much later in
the game. Poor communication?

-- 
Before Sept. 11 there was not the present excited talk about a strike
on Iraq. There is no evidence of any connection between Iraq and that
act of terrorism. Why would that event change the situation?
-- Howard Zinn