[tlhIngan Hol] DISvam chabal tetlh

Wed Feb 13 05:41:55 PST 2019

Also, realize that one of the free services is the mailing list, which gives you the social tools to promote the words you think would be most useful to the language. This gives you the capacity to convince those who pay the money you apparently believe to be excessive to vote on your behalf.

I think the list looks great. I considered voting, but so far, I like the choices that others are making and respect that they have been working at this while I’ve been off having a life, doing other things. It’s someone else’s turn to get to choose new words.

I’m one of the Friends of Maltz. I was granted the right to ask for a word, wholly on my own. Even then, I looked to the list to see what others thought would be the most useful word, because for me, it’s not a privilege to be flaunted. It’s an opportunity to add a resource to the community. I passed forward someone else’s suggestion for a new word who had convinced me that it was more useful than something I might have come up with on my own.

Perhaps some people here may hoard whatever privilege they can muster here, but that’s not my sense of this community of remarkably interesting people. Most people here, like myself, basically live lives that have too few outlets for their natural surplus of intellect, and so it spills out in harmless hobbies like this one. We are good people who would love to invent medicines or engineer bridges or devise new technologies or solve major social problems, etc. but it’s not our station in life to get to do these things, so we work a day job and then argue about the Klingon language.

The arrogance that raises its ugly head from time to time is most likely based on the lack of appreciation we feel for what would have been our potentials in another life. It’s not my fault that my father was a machinist with a 6th grade education, crippled in WWII and drank himself to death when I was 9, and Mom remarried to a welder with a 5th grade education who died of lung cancer while I was in college. Mom was a country girl with a 10th grade education and the chronic low self esteem of being raised by a religious fanatic who convinced her that she should and would burn in Hell because she wasn’t chosen to be a member of the only church whose members wouldn’t do so, by divine grace, even though they also deserved to burn. This is not the kind of family background that advises and supports you toward an academic career. My intelligence is a hereditary accident. It’s been a handicap as much as it has been a resource.

So, I got a job in Computer Support before computers had been around long enough for employers to demand experience in their use, and now I help professors deal with computers all day, and I speak Klingon because… well… why not?

Normal people know why not. That doesn’t apply to me.

And it doesn’t apply to most people here. My bet is that most people here are too smart for the lives they are living. Their intellect gets bottled up during much of a typical day and it runs in one of those hamster wheels, waiting for an opportunity to go play in the Klingon language.

Language is not about individuals. It’s about the interface between individuals. It’s about community. You can be in it with or without money.

And if you don’t have the money for the few exclusive parts of this, I suggest that this is not the only financial problem you are facing. Life is unfair to those without money. Been there. Got the T-shirt.

Hang in there long enough, and someone will pay you for your talents sufficiently that you can have full access to anything the rest of us have here. Until then, the rest of us will pay the money to keep the community’s resources afloat.

charghwI’ vaghnerya'ngan

> On Feb 13, 2019, at 7:31 AM, qurgh lungqIj <qurgh at wizage.net> wrote:
> 
> The KLI offers a lot of free services, this mailing list that you used to freely learn the Klingon language is an example. 
> 
> Members of the KLI have freely given their time to you to teach you the language.
> 
> Do you use the Duolingo course, boQwI' or Hol 'ampaS? They could not exist without the KLI's extensive work with the language. Work that cost time and money.
> 
> Without the KLI's continued existence, none if this would be happening. For the KLI to continue to exist, it needs members and volunteers. The members who pay money help keep the lights on (and pay for the servers that run this list), while the members who volunteer their time keep the wheels moving, so as a thank-you we give them extras. They put into the system, so they get more out. That sounds very fair to me.
> 
> Non-paid KLI members can freely suggest 2 words and freely vote on every word (+1 or -1). I don't see how this is a "severe disadvantage" over folks who get more suggestions or an extra vote (+2 to -2). Membership is less than 9 Euros a year. That's a very low barrier, but I understand it's a barrier.
> 
> So, to go to your two people, the second person has the option to ask, "What can I do to help the KLI? I have no money, but I have these skills ... and I'd like to give back." That's how I got this gig in the first place, I offered to freely share my skills. 
> 
> And, just so you know, grammarians will get more say on the system than regular members, as will those that have passed KLCP levels. The work just takes time, as it is just the two of us doing it in our free time. 
> 
> So, remember, before you say the system is unfair, look at how much you have gotten from it, compared to what you have given to it. 
> 
> qurgh
> 
> On Wed, Feb 13, 2019, 5:23 AM mayqel qunenoS <mihkoun at gmail.com <mailto:mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm sorry for saying this, but this is unfair.
> 
> This is the epitome, this is the monument, of an unfair system for the
> suggestion of new words.
> 
> The more of a premium membership someone has, i.e. the more money he
> is willing to pay the klingon language institute, the more words he
> can suggest, and the more votes he's able to cast.
> 
> So, lets imagine two people..
> 
> The first person, is someone not-so-serious about the language, but
> he's willing to pay. So, although likely he can't even write "I
> suggest this word for maltz" in klingon, he's able not only to suggest
> new words, but also to vote on the words others have suggested.
> 
> The second person is someone who worked hard to learn the language, he
> has made it a part of his life, but for whatever reasons he can't pay.
> However this second person is at a severe disadvantage..
> 
> If the recommendations of some people have to take priority, then it
> should be the recommendations of those who are members of the tlhIngan
> Hol jatlhwI'pu' facebook group. People who admittedly can actually use
> the language.
> 
> It is disturbing to see that everything comes down to money.
> 
> ~ mayqel *I love maltz* qunen'oS
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> 
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