Re: CHAT: Offlang suggestion

Aidan Grey et al. wrote:


>At 09:57 PM 4/2/2002 ?, Miekko wrote:
>>Secondly, I suggest there be formed a new mailinglist parallelly with
>>Conlang, to reduce the load of mail on the main list. This parallell list
>>would
>>be a place where off-topic debate could be held, and debates slipping OT
>>here could be redirected there.
>
>
>   While the off-topic chatter here _occasionally_ gets on my nerves, I
>actually prefer that it all stay here on Conlang.  One, the topics tend to
>wander about to freely to be sure that any given topic remains on or off
>topic over the space of a day. 2) While conlanging occasionally takes
>second place behind the chat, the chat _does_ foster the sense of
>community. I feel like I really know some of the people here (heya daniel!
>how's life?). 3) if topics started on off-lang, but moved into conlangy
>territory, by the time it popped up here, if ever, momentum would be lost.
>4) the delete key is too easy to use.

I agree with Aidan.  Some of you may recall that Langmaker, a couple of
years ago, created a subsidiary list for OT chatter-- mainly because at the
time ONE or TWO individuals were carrying on a religio-philosophical debate
of little relevance to conlanging.  The sub-list sputtered along for a while
until one of the participants got offended and withdrew, and I had stopped
following it long before that.
In our case, it seems ANY topic can excite OT-ism, and that's to be
expected; it is part of what keeps this list a friendly, conversational,
oft-times amusing, but always interesting place to be...

Praise be, we haven't suffered a "my dialect pronounces X-- No, my dialect
pronounces X1 etc etc" in a long while.