Re: Why you should never be too hasty with "delete" was Re: Offlang suggestion & counterproposal

En réponse à Peter Clark <pc451@...>:

>
>         This, kiddies, is a sterling example of what could happen if you
> delete your
> Conlang email too quickly. Someone might just decide to volunteer you
> for
> something! :)
>
:)) Just giving you a poll subject :)) .

>
>         Hmm. I must admit, the idea of a publication is rather
> appealing, but then,
> I'm trained as a writer (although, as Mr. Rosta has pointed out, my
> spelling
> sometimes needs...mechanical intervention). So I am sort of biased.
> Alas, I
> have already deleted much of what was posted on this thread, because it
> got
> caught on a rather unfortunate rabbit trail (guys, first you decide IF
> there
> will be a journal, then you decide HOW you will typeset it).
Problem: it's to people from the list to decide whether there will be a journal
or not. I cannot decide myself, without knowing that people on the list will
want to submit articles. But if we have to wait to know everybody's opinion
before thinking of the practical ways to do it, the journal won't appear before
next year! :))

>         My two denarii: the qualifications for an interesting journal
> for me would
> be: (A) dissection of interesting natlangs (apart from the usual IE
> stuff,
> unless it's discussing more unusual or interesting features like
> Celtic
> mutation or Russian verbs of motion), and (B) professional descriptions
> of
> morphological and syntactical systems (for instance, an examination of
> mutation in other languages than the Celtic group or different case
> systems
> from a wide selection on language families). Basically, I would be
> interested
> in something that advertises itself as "steal this feature!"
Nice idea! But as I said, when you have an idea of article theme, write an
article yourself, if only to make an example :)) . Many people already gave
plenty of ideas of articles. If they made one article per idea, there would
already be enough for one issue :)) .

>         My fear is that this would only last about two issues before the
> interest of
> the group shifted to something else. (Ooo! Shiny!) This list has ~350
> members, which is pretty slim pickings, if my rough estimate of
> beginners to
> intermediates to experts (10:5:1) is anywhere near the mark.
True, I'm afraid of that too. Though by making it three-monthly, I hope I make
it easy enough to write articles that people that stay interested in it (even
if they are only a few) will always have time enough to fill the journal.

>         Of course, if there was a "Cowan's Corner", it might be
> interesting
> regardless of the rest of the content. :)
Hehe, a necessary part of the journal indeed :)) .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.