Subject: Re: [lojban] Re: Official Statement- LLG Board approves new baseline policy

From: Robert LeChevalier <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2002 09:06:30 -0500

At 11:44 PM 12/4/02 -0600, sbelknap wrote:
>JCB was an inventor, so he is not in one of Ryan and Gross's groups. Those 
>who
>bought his books were innovators, but I believe nearly all of them abandoned
>Loglan as a failed experiment because no language community developed. We now
>have a language community, (though far too much of the conversation still
>occurs in English, mea maxima culpa). Thus, I believe that many of these
>Loglan innovators would rekindle their interest in Loglan/lojban if we were
>able to reach them. I'm not so interested in reaching what little remains of
>the TLI political structure, what I seek is to track down and recruit all
>those Loglan book buyers. I believe that if these persons became aware that
>there was a stable language community, we would be well on the way to
>developing a community of lojban speakers that speak about something other
>than lojban.
>
>I have not changed my estimation of the number of these convertible sleeping
>Loglanders. I think it is about 500.

It is possibly higher than that, since I believe that JCB sold 1000-2000 
books. (The first printing of 3rd edition sold out quickly, but I can't 
remember whether it was 500 or 1000. The 2nd printing was 2000 and it 
never came close to selling out. But then, in 30 years, some people have died.

> Occasionally, I meet one on an airplane,
>at a conference, or in some online forum unrelated to lojban. I last met a
>sleeping Loglander 3 years ago at a lecture on the electronic medical record.
>He thought that Loglan was dead and had given up on it. Innovators are the
>seeds that will eventually form lojban clubs, give lojban courses, talk about
>lojban at the local Rotary Club, etc. It is foolish to ignore this
>possibility. Even if I am completely wrong, what harm can it do to expend a
>trivial amount of effort with a mailing to these book buyers?

When you clarify, then it becomes clear what the answer is: Because no one 
knows who these book buyers are. Possibly someone going through JCB's 
correspondence for 30 years (if he kept it) might be able to get a list, 
but the TLI mailing list at the time that I got it had only the small 
fraction of book buyers who had maintained contact for the roughly 10 years 
since 3rd edition books had been published. Since for several years, JCB 
did TLI bookkeeping in his checkbook register, he did not necessarily 
record the addresses of book purchasers.

I keep every piece of paper, but I am a poor (and undisciplined) organizer, 
so the LLG archives are comprehensive but disorganized. Thus we have a 
list of all buyers of of our books, and all JL subscribers, etc. We don't 
necessarily know their current addresses and balances, because that data 
hasn't been entered into the software for 10 years (except for brief 
efforts that got little done), though all supporting documentation has been 
maintained to allow it to be done.

But the 30-year TLI customer list is probably unrecoverable, even to 
McIvor, and most of JCB's book buyers did so more than 25 years ago.

lojbab

-- 
lojbab [email-masked]
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org