Subject: RE: [lojban] RE: Re: Well I guess you do learn something new every day...

From: "And Rosta" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2001 14:12:19 +0100

Nick:
> So the gaps do get filled, one way
> or the other. I guess I'm just saying we need to keep looking for them;
> and I don't think they're going to get filled the way people assume
> they're going to get filled. I think it won't be amorphous Invisible Hand
> (spoken usage); and it won't be Edict (the time for that is clearly past.)
> It will be a clumsier combination
> of debate and usage among Lojbanists of good will, with occasional
> steerings away from contradicting existing baseline. (Arguably, that's
> what's just happened with {vo'a} and {fa'a}.)

I completely agree.

> And the exchanges are going to keep being testy and frustrating; but I
> think the community is now maturing enough that something can be extracted
> out of them in the end, most of the time.

Pace Lojbab [-- a vain hope!], keeping records on the Wiki will be a huge 
help: it will remind us of what we decided, it will help newcomers to 
discover what we decided, it will in consequence reduce the number of 
debates that just rehash past debates, and it will therefore help us to 
move our debates into new territory.

As for testiness, to enter the debates, it does help if one is endowed with 
rhinocerotically thick skin and inexhaustible goodwill, especially if one
is Lojban Central, in whom pachydermality and benevolence are concentrated
in truly admirable abundance.

--And.