Re: CHAT: History of Conlang List

Matt:
> 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...
My *recollection* is that it began in 1991, but I may be out by a
year either side. But I'm sure this point was settled the last time
we discussed this.

I certainly do recall the sudden shift to artlangers (and the growth
in traffic) approximately coincident with the availability of web
search engines. I think of you, Dirk, Tommaso and David Bell as
leading that shift.

--And.