Re: Language Creation: The International Language Construction Bulletin (working title)

En réponse à Tim May <butsuri@...>:

>
> I don't disagree with you that it's a bad attitude.  But in my opinion
> placing artificial and unnecessary difficulties in people's lives
> isn't going to help, no matter how small those difficulties are.
>
That's the main point. You find those difficulties artificial and unnecessary.
I find that those are not difficulties at all and that they are vital to the
survival of the journal. I have experience in such a practice with the school
newspaper I was working in. It was at the edge of disappearing (no articles
sent, nobody reading it) although it was completely free. Nobody cared about
it, until we asked for a payment to get it (it was not much: 1 franc - at that
time we didn't talk about euros yet :)) -, but it was an unnecessary and
artificial difficulty added, especially since we had no use for this money - it
didn't even pay for a quarter of the copying costs -). Strangely enough, it's
this which saved the newspaper. The simple fact that we made the newspaper non-
free brought new attention to it. We got more and more people submitting
articles and more and more people asking to get the newspaper. Was I in such a
special school that it worked there and wouldn't work anywhere else? I don't
think so. In fact, I'm quite sure that the average students in my school are
even lazier and more difficult than the audience this journal will get :)) .
And I speak from first-hand experience :)) .

>
> Of course, if you want it to really be like a real journal, you could
> institute rigorous peer review of all submitted articles ;).
>
Well, the problem would be to find experts on the domains that the articles
will cover. I don't think it's possible. At best what can be done is like a
magazine: a rubrique of the reader, with their "letters" sent about articles
from former issues. I don't think it would be a bad idea, even for people who
wouldn't have time to send a full article. They could even send their letters
in e-mail (with an authorisation to publish it of course, I don't publish
anything without the author's consent).

>
> As I said before, you must do what you think is right, and the
> difficulty involved is minimal.  So as you seem set on this highly
> eccentric course of action, I here request subscription to the
> journal.
>
Noted! :))

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

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