Change in administrator on the way

Toki Pona news: new website, upcoming book, announcements from the language's creator
Tokiponaj novaĵoj: nova TTT-ejo, venonta libro, aperonta libro, anoncoj de la kreinto de la lingvo
Sonja
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Jul 02, 2009 1:17 pm

Re: Change in administrator on the way

Post by Sonja »

I need to be a better mama pi toki pona.
Kuti
Posts: 358
Joined: Sun Feb 28, 2010 3:48 pm

Re: Change in administrator on the way

Post by Kuti »

awww ^^
I'm sure you could. I guess i could feel what you feel. For seven years i ruled a very small artistical movement. It went good at first, but you know artists are weird, and we get some misunderstanding towards the end. I was upset and i gave up, the whole thing failed.
Two years passed, and now i regret to never manage to do my best to continue or saved my creation. I really feel like an abortion or something. but i'm pregnant of new artistical ideas, so maybe i could do something else different.

As for toki pona, i think everybody here could agree that it is a great project and a very cute and good conlang. Minimalistic, easy to learn and use. It is still appealing to new people. Time to time i get new people on IRC and i try to help them and answer their questions. You could be glad that ten years after the begining, your language still interests people and newcomers. There are still lots of questions, like "pu", like number system, old and new words etc… But apart of this, things are going good anyway :P
janMato wrote: Yeah, I get the same map when I map the visitors to tokipona.net -- China, most countries of SE Asia, India, all of the Islamic countries, all of Africa- even South Africa, are virtually unrepresented. I don't know if this is something to do with the history of languages and conlangs in those countries, or if this is internet access related. Conlanging as a hobby is definitely a project of middle-income-and-up countries.
At least about Africa it is an internet related problems, those countries are so poor and they have better urges about living than internet. I saw no connection from Africa on my website yet.
There are also "closed" countries like North Korea and Iran, wich for political dictatoship related reasons have or will have their own network not connected to the rest of internet. And also China wich could be restrictive on internet.
In the other hand there are lot of conlangers in USA and Russia. I didn't knew that before.
Sonja
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Jul 02, 2009 1:17 pm

Re: Change in administrator on the way

Post by Sonja »

Keep in mind it's only a discussion. I've privately asked a few active people if they would be interested in managing Toki Pona. It's an option I need to consider. I didn't intend to create a big public discussion about it.
janMato
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Location: Takoma Park, MD
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Re: Change in administrator on the way

Post by janMato »

On a good day a dozen people are actively paying attention to ma pi toki pona, so obscurity is it's own form of privacy. What ever you choose, you will have to have some publicity about it, else fans and the random people who show up every few days won't buy into your decision.

In any case, we all patiently await your decision.
jan-ante
Posts: 541
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2009 4:05 pm

Re: Change in administrator on the way

Post by jan-ante »

Sonja wrote: jan Ante o toki!

mi mama ike. Toki Pona is very popular. It needs a new mama. Would you be interested in becoming the owner of tokipona.org and all the content on it? You could publish books, do whatever you want. Toki Pona would be all yours.
toki pona is yours and no one else could own this. the best thing we could do after your official resignation is to preserve "classical" toki pona as is, without introducing any new words, leaving all current problems as is. but everyone could develope his own derivate of tp as jan Kipo currently do (although he might deny this). Everyone could publish books on classical tp or its offspring. but the best owner of tokipona.org is jan Mato
aikidave
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Location: Boston, MA
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Re: Change in administrator on the way

Post by aikidave »

jan-ante wrote:toki pona is yours and no one else could own this. the best thing we could do after your official resignation is to preserve "classical" toki pona as is, without introducing any new words, leaving all current problems as is. but everyone could develope his own derivate of tp as jan Kipo currently do (although he might deny this). Everyone could publish books on classical tp or its offspring. but the best owner of tokipona.org is jan Mato
I would respectfully disagree. Toki pona is currently unfinished at least in terms of proper usage of prepositional phrases; it has some open issues which must be addressed before we can define what classical toki pona is. jan Sonja has not made rulings on the 'current problems'. If in fact, the keys of toki pona are passed onto jan Mato and jan Kipo, they should come to a consensus and resolve the open issues. A canonical toki pona book, as mentioned above in this thread, could provide examples of proper usage in these areas and answer questions which have arisen previously in this forum. The toki pona book would define what classical toki pona is. Writing and reviewing this book is at least a one or two year effort by the members of this forum, guided by jan Kipo and jan Mato. I doubt that any of us in this forum wants to add any new words to classical toki pona. It would be useful to have a chapter in the book listing common toki pona phrases. The only derivative of toki pona that I foresee, is one that provides an optional numbering system.
jan-ante
Posts: 541
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2009 4:05 pm

Re: Change in administrator on the way

Post by jan-ante »

aikidave wrote: Toki pona is currently unfinished at least in terms of proper usage of prepositional phrases; it has some open issues which must be addressed before we can define what classical toki pona is.
the defining the current version as a classical one is independent on open issues. it depends on change of era and on the achievement of current (i.e. passing away) era. in my opinion we have sufficient points to score this version as classical, or precisely Pije-Sonja era
jan Sonja has not made rulings on the 'current problems'.
and, nethertheless, toki pona survived and has become very popular. i.e. the solution of "current problems" is not mandatory
If in fact, the keys of toki pona are passed onto jan Mato and jan Kipo, they should come to a consensus and resolve the open issues
what do you mean under "keys of toki pona"? even if jan Mato and jan Kipo resolve the "open issues", this would belong to post-classical era
A canonical toki pona book, as mentioned above in this thread, could provide examples of proper usage in these areas and answer questions which have arisen previously in this forum. The toki pona book would define what classical toki pona is.
i dont think that canonical book is possible after jan Sonja resignition. from this moment every book is "post-classical"
Jan KoAla
Posts: 68
Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2011 9:30 pm

Re: Change in administrator on the way

Post by Jan KoAla »

Before this becomes another debate where nothing is resolved, I'd like to find some common ground.

The problem, as I see it, is a semantic issue.

What I mean by that is what toki pona is, is different to everyone who uses it (a very bad thing when trying to talk about "what toki pona needs"). As a language, toki pona is unfinished.

As a game, or a toy of some sort, toki pona works just fine. This also explains why changing anything is the same as "breaking the rules", which makes the game no longer any fun.

I think it's best not to throw around words like "post-classical" as that just makes things more confusing. What some people want is just a finished language that can be used for anything. Other's want a game or a toy or just a fun hobby to play around with, and are content not to have toki pona be a language.
Last edited by Jan KoAla on Tue Jun 05, 2012 11:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
aikidave
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Re: Change in administrator on the way

Post by aikidave »

These are 2 links to some of the open issues that I was thinking about that should be resolved:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1251

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1181

If jan Sonja turns toki pona over to jan Mato and jan Kipo, this would be a good time to address and resolve these issues.
The recommended usage should be contained in "The Book" mentioned in previous posts.
Jan KoAla wrote:What some people want is just a finished language that can be used for anything.
I do see toki pona as a language as opposed to a toy. But I realize that it cannot be used for anything and that is fine with me. I am happy to have it as a simple, finished language, with the grammatical and usage questions resolved.
janKipo
Posts: 3064
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:20 pm

Re: Change in administrator on the way

Post by janKipo »

Even as a game, some rules are unclear -- to put it mildly. Almost any word group is legal under the current inchoate rules in Condition, for example, but should they be? Ditto for after 'pi' in modifiers. And probably other places. What restrictions need to apply (and "eliminate those that don't make sense" doesn't help much).
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