Re: The Mad Proposals

la .and. cusku di'e

> Lojban Central policy is to fix only what
> doesn't work, and changes for the sake of elegance and simplicity
> are not countenanced.

Correct, if you add ">present< policy".  Loglan has historically suffered
from a surfeit of changes; people who learned one version found later versions
unintelligible, and there was never any formalized structure for change
management.  LLG's baselining policy has been an attempt (perhaps too rigid)
to prevent this.

Note that "baselining" is not synonymous with "no change".  The grammar, for
example, has had two baselines, separated by some 28 changes; the third
(hopefully final) baseline will have 33 more.  But each has been carefully
documented and justified; I applaud Jorge's presentation.

> I gather that the policy has wide support,
> though I find it rather a shame.

If anything, the policy is more strongly supported by the off-Net Lojbanists.

> If I had a vote, which I don't,
> I'd support Jorge's proposals, unless there turned out to be good
> language-internal arguments against them.

You do have a vote, like every Lojbanist, and your vote is duly noted.

My personal views:  I like Jorge's ideas, and if they had come just a little
sooner, I'd probably have fought for them.  At this point, I'm reluctant to
throw away investment in various texts (both Lojban and English) to install
them.  This paragraph doesn't represent the policy of LLG or its Board.

-- 
John Cowan		sharing account <lojbab@access.digex.net> for now
		e'osai ko sarji la lojban.