Subject: Re: [lojban] Marketing lojban

From: Jay Kominek <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2001 09:02:56 -0700 (MST)

On Thu, 22 Mar 2001, Invent Yourself wrote:

> Interest in Lojban seems to be short-lived in most people. They appear,
> get intensely interested, invent many ideas for software projects or such,
> and within 3 months they vanish into obscurity. I suspect there is a
> factor that would keep them interested for longer periods, but I'm not
> sure what that is.

I think people would maintain their interest longer if they saw things
happening outside the mailing list. Outside of the mailing list, balvi and
jbofi'e are the only things that doesn't look fairly stagnant.

> My last call for IRC chat got one interested
> respondent. That's an increase from the previous call.

I've been thinking about the whole IRC thing, too. People discussed
switching networks before, but nothing really came about because of it
(that I'm aware of, anyways). I don't think EFNet really impedes anyone
who _really_ wants to get on, but the frequent difficulties with
connecting would probably make casual attempts to get on a pain.

Someone mentioned the possibility of using the OpenProjects network
before. That seems fairly reasonable, I don't think its administration
would have a problem with Lojban.

(Looks like somebody registered #lojban on OpenProjects just last night.
Somebody must be interested. I'm willing to hang around there if other
people are interested in it.)

> Once Lojban is learned to an expert level, the student is on their own to
> go forth and create with it. Not everybody has a personality that is
> comfortable developing material in bleak environments, with such a small
> audience and even fewer peers.

I'm not sure about that. I think plenty of people wouldn't have a problem
with writing something new if they're expert level, or even below that. I
think what stops people is self-doubt about their own skill. How do you
know when you're good enough that your Lojban is basically right all the
time? Maybe since I'm not to that point I don't know that a little sign
starts flashing behind your retina saying "You've reached the 4th level,
congratulations!"?

- Jay Kominek <[email-masked]>
Waiting Is.