Re: "Newbie"

On Saturday, January 10, 2004, at 06:11 AM, Marty Rosenberg wrote:

> Hello, everyone. My name is Marty Rosenberg, and I'm new to the list. I'm
> also what one might call a "newbie." I'm 15,
 From an old'un nearly half a century older than you: "Welcome aboard!"

> and started conlanging (if, indeed, that is a word) about two years ago.
> I don't know if anyone else here was that young when they started,
Younger  :)

Several of us seem to have begun around the age of 10.

> so I'm not entirely sure what to expect, but I (usually) like surprises.
We'll do our best  :)

> First of all, I would just like to say that I've heard great things about
> this list, and over the past few days, during which I have been skimming
> through the digests, the conversation has seemed interesting.
Yep, you'll get all sorts. This is quite a chatty sort of list. You'll get
topics that interest
you, and some you may find dead boring - and they're by no means the same
for everyone. So we
put up with one another's little foibles  ;)

> I've also heard that you all are very welcoming and helpful, and I do
> hope that this is true.
Of all this lists I've been on, this is the only one I've stuck with.
Being an open list -
which IMHO is a "good thing" - we can occasionally get a visit from some
who have a narrow,
parisan line to push - but I don't recall any such 'visits' in recent
times.  On the whole,
I've found the folk around here, as you say, both welcoming & helpful.

> Now that that's over with, on to my efforts - and I do mean "efforts,"
> not "successes" - at conlanging. So far I've tried three things, each one
> a failure, but teaching me a few things in that failure.
How many of us actually have "successes"?  How do you measure the success
of a conlang?
Forget the "failures" tag!

> My first effort, Tuntarac, tought me that conlangs should not simply be
> codes,
Yep - it _taught_ you something, so it didn't entirely fail! We'll
learning the whole time,
even old hands like me. This is a fun hobby.

That's the trouble IMO with those guys on Auxlang - they take themselves
far too seriously.
The main thing is that conlanging should be _enjoyable_.

[snip]

Keep on experimenting with you different ideas - that's how we learn.
There's no
such thing as a 'perfect' conlang.

So, welcome aboard and enjoy your conlanging.

Ray
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"A mind which thinks at its own expense will always
interfere with language."         J.G. Hamann, 1760