Re: CHAT: History of Conlang List

At 01:54 PM 3/24/99 -0800, JOEL MATTHEW PEARSON wrote:
>Do you happen to recall the year when the Conlang list was founded?  I
>joined the list in late 1993 or early 1994, during Lars Mathieson's
>tenure.  I consider myself something of an old-timer, and I'm curious
>as to whether that impression is justified.  :-)
>
>Back in '93/'94, if I remember, the list was already shifting away from
>Auxlang dominance and towards Artlang dominance.  There were still
>frequent and lively discussions on topics of Auxlang/Loglang interest
>(such as bracketing paradoxes and parsable morphology), but the Esperanto
>Flame Wars were over and the Auxlang list had already been created as
>a place of refuge/exile...
>
>Matt.
>
I think some of your timing may be off by a year or so.  I joined the list
in September of '95.  (I'm pretty sure of the date because it was right
after I came back from the World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow and
subsequent traveling in Scotland and England.  I first heard about the list
in e-mail discussions in preparation for the con, but I remember deciding to
put off joining until after the trip.)  And I distinctly remember some flame
wars between supporters and opponents of Esperanto.  (In fact, it seems like
there was a fairly long period of almost continuous flame wars, but my
memory may be exaggerating that.)  I also remember a lot of other
auxlang-oriented arguments (for instance, about whether or not Glosa is a
relex of English).  And I think I remember the creation of the Auxlang list.

On the other hand, I'm struck (not for the first time) by how vague some of
my memories turn out to be when I really try to examine them closely.

-------------------------------------------------
Tim Smith
timsmith@global2000.net

Get your facts first and then you can distort them as you please.
- Mark Twain