zompist bboard

The Language Creation Society (LCS) would like to announce the creation of a new advisory committee. The LCS Advisory Committee will be a group of individuals (e.g., conlangers, non-conlangers, fans of conlanging/conlangs) who'd like to provide input to the LCS Board on LCS activities impacting the greater conlanging community. The charge of the advisory committee would be to discuss overarching policy decisions, large-scale projects, and the general direction of the LCS. Day-to-day operations of the society (e.g., maintenance of the website, adding new blogs to the Conlang Blog Aggregator, etc.) would be handled by the officers and Board. You don't need to be an LCS member, or even necessarily an active conlanger, to be a member of the LCS Advisory Committee. All you need is an interest in helping to inform the LCS and help it to better serve the greater conlanging community.

If this sounds like something with which you'd like to be involved, we'd like to hear from you. If you're interested in joining the advisory committee, send an e-mail to volunteer@conlang.org. Let us know what portion of the community you're from (e.g., active conlanger, fan of a particular conlang, linguaphile, etc.) and what your user name is on any conlang-related forum (if applicable, such as your user name on ZBB ). The committee will communicate via a mailman listserv, so we will need your e-mail address, but other than that, anyone can participate.

If you'd like more detailed information about the advisory committee, go to http://conlang.org/adcom.php.

In other LCS news, we have recently changed leadership and added several new board members:

President: David Peterson (creator of Dothraki and other languages)
Treasurer: Sylvia Sotomayor (creator of Kelen)
Secretary: Don Boozer (The Conlanging Librarian)
New Board Members: Alex Fink (co-creator of the Gripping Language), Doug Ball (creator of Skerre), Richard Littauer (Web master of Dothraki.org), and John Quijada (creator of Ithkuil)

If you have any questions about the LCS or the new advisory committee, feel free to e-mail lcs@conlang.org.

- Don Boozer, LCS Secretary/Librarian

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Language Creation Society
http://www.conlang.org/

Advisory committee? Board?

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Dibotahamdn duthma jallni agaynni ra hgitn lakrhmi.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.

Yep. We'd like to get the larger conlanging community involved in the LCS in providing input on projects that would be of use/interest to that community, and felt this would be a good way to start that process (being that no membership requirement is... well, required )

- Don

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Language Creation Society
http://www.conlang.org/

I've been trying to sharpen my psychic powers, tell me if I'm right: every member of the society is also a member of that board.

Also, I like that the LCS has an Official Account on this forum. So fancy!

Isn't this Ephemera material?

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Actually, that would be incorrect. The LCS currently has 63 members in 14 countries.


Just helps to keep things collated instead of individual members posting these kinds of announcements...but I'm happy to use my own account for posts and replies as well if it's preferred. Like this


I would suggest that it isn't since this is an on-going attempt to ask for participants for the advisory committee and doesn't have "a close sell-by date" like Ephemera.

- Don

This is a sorely needed organ, I fully endorse it.

- Robert H N Williams, Conlang Patriarch of All England

I hope your secretary Don Boozer doesn't do too much drinking on the job!

Luckily, it's not a job...it's all volunteer work

Isn't Robert H N Williams the Conlang Primate of All England? But then again, I guess we're all conlang primates in a manner of speaking.

*crickets*

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"It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be said, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is.' Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it."
– The Gospel of Thomas

there's this guy, THC. I think you and him would get on well.

.

Be charitable to the man. I mean, he's not declared himself King of Conlangia, so he's a step above most micronations. A half-step, at least.

Some people make lists, some people declare themselves emperor of a bureaucracy. It's a downside of our particular demographic.

On a more serious note, I am in one way heartened by Sai's departure, and to a lesser extent JQ's accession (although he is of course very much in the vein of the other board members); on the other hand, I am somewhat concerned that the change in leadership may make the convatican more serious and more effective - which would of course be a tragedy, and should be a serious concern to the free part of the community.

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Blog: http://vacuouswastrel.wordpress.com/

But the river tripped on her by and by, lapping
as though her heart was brook: Why, why, why! Weh, O weh
I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!

Indeed, screw all this boring-ass Egyptian, Tunisian, and Libyan bullcrap... the LCC is at long last free from the despotic rule of Saizai!! SIC SEMPER TYRANNUS!!

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"It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be said, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is.' Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it."
– The Gospel of Thomas

"Micronation" is pretty funny, and kind of encapsulates the strange vibe that Sai gave off sometimes.

I think acknowledging that there is a "larger conlanging community" is a step in the right direction. It's great there there are conlanging entities; I think it's best if nobody tries to set up the conlanging entity.

Oh, while I'm thinking about it, Don, could you revise your kind references on the LCS site to refer to "Zompist", not "the Zompist"?

What happened to saizai? Did he ascend to a higher plane of existence and get stuck there?

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I dunno, I think "the Zompist" has a nice reverential sound to it.

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"It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be said, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is.' Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it."
– The Gospel of Thomas

Yes, and then we can get a picture taken of you wearing a süpa.

Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot that I should be thinking only and entirely about foreign affairs, and not more trivial matters. I'm surprised I bother to eat these days.

On which note: forget about this Libyan bullshit, at least we can all be glad that Salmoneus' failure to concentrate entirely upon Libya has been finally skewered by Cev's might wit! Except wait, what the fuck is he doing wasting his time posting macros when he could be joining the foreign legion (having donated all his money to Japan)? Come on cev, stop wasting time!

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Blog: http://vacuouswastrel.wordpress.com/

But the river tripped on her by and by, lapping
as though her heart was brook: Why, why, why! Weh, O weh
I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!

Which is exactly what this new scheme seems to be about. Note that their stated intention in bringing in outsiders (or appearing to bring them in, in a powerless advisroy capacity) is to promote themselves as the organisation to 'serve' their community. You know, like any good government does, though listening to the voice of the people.

I'm glad they've finally recognised that there are people, but I'm disappointed they still think it's their role to listen to us. The rhetoric of serving the community is a smokescreen over their reality as a personal vanity project.

[And don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with being a personal vanity project - the whole of conlanging is made up of personal vanity projects. What's wrong is trying to be more than that.]

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Blog: http://vacuouswastrel.wordpress.com/

But the river tripped on her by and by, lapping
as though her heart was brook: Why, why, why! Weh, O weh
I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!

Oh, but I would be so glad to vote for you if you were considering running for the position of ZBB Whip in this Forum fororum!

Happy to do it. To the best of my knowledge, I've now expunged all the preceding definite articles... although I must admit that I tend to agree with Xephyr....

i guess reverence *is* the point of this, after all.

First, let me say that I am in no way speaking as part of the LCS Board, officers, or any other "official" capacity in this particular post. That's why I didn't use the LCS ZBB account. These are only my personal thoughts on the points that have been brought up.

I've personally always seen the LCS's relationship to conlanging as akin to the American Philatelic Society's relationship to stamp collecting, the National Model Railroad Association to model railroading, or the American Numismatic Association to coin collecting. You don't have to belong to any of these organizations if you are a stamp collector, model railroader, or coin collector, but they're there if you want to. Likewise, those who do join, gain some benefits of membership. The bigger purpose to all of these, including the LCS, is to provide resources to its members and the wider community of enthusiasts/fans/whatever you call them.

To put this into conlanging perspective, one conlanger working on his/her own would find it difficult to be able to pull off a continuing event like the LCC. I attended LCC2 and thoroughly enjoyed it, and LCC3 was even bigger than its predecessor. The ability to interact with other conlangers online is great, and Zompist (see no definite article ) has done a wonderful service to the community by maintaining this bulletin board. I don't have to tell anyone reading this that this is the case, but being able to talk and learn from people in-person was a great experience. Granted, there are smaller meetings taking place among conlangers all the time, but LCC is a unique conlanger-friendly environment.

Zompist himself maintains this domain for the good of the community (and, of course, his own conworldly endeavors) with his own money. A society/club/association/whatever like the LCS provides some basic infrastructure and funding to do bigger things like the LCC and other ideas that have been kicking around.

I have absolutely no desire to get caught up in discussions about Sai that have taken place in the past or are taking place. Granted, the LCC/LCS was started by Sai and he's still involved, but I think it's important that the LCS is a self-sustaining organization independent of one singular personality. The new change in leadership hopefully demonstrates some of that to those skeptical of the motives of the LCS.

I'm sorry to hear Salmoneus is disappointed that the LCS ...



From my perspective, that's the primary role of any organization that represents a larger community (see the stamps, trains, and coin reference above): to listen to the members of its constituent community. If the LCS can be a conduit for some larger projects to benefit the wider community, why not take advantage of them (regardless of how it got started or what interpretation you want to put on that creation)? What should those kinds of projects be? That's where the Advisory Committee comes in.

Anyway, that's my take on what the LCS is and what it can be.

Other People's Money, actually.

I'd suggest that a better model would be the Chicago Linguistics Society. It does almost exactly the same things: hold meetings, organize an annual conference, publish books at a scholarly level. It's a great resource, but it doesn't attempt to be "the" linguistics organization or even "the" student linguistics organization.