tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Mar 28 05:45:57 1995

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Re: What does "KLBC" mean?

According to Alan Anderson:
> 
> I often see notes with "KLBC" in the subject line.
> I don't find an explanation for it in the Welcome or FAQ files.
> Someone please tell me what it means.

It means Klingon Language Beginner's
Conversation/Conference/Club. Different people remember the
last letter of the acronym differently. Actually, THESE days,
it doesn't mean MUCH. KLBC was to be the domain of the
Beginner's Grammarian, which was supposed to be a rotating
post, giving intermediate Klingonists a place to invest their
participation towards the raising of skill levels of those new
people on the list.

I got started because the advanced Klingonists complained of
how bored they were with repetitions of the same old questions,
while the beginners were complaining about the density of the
advanced posts. If the beginners placed KLBC in the subject
header, then the advanced Klingonists who didn't feel like
dealing with the beginner's stuff could skip/delete those
messages, while the beginners who didn't feel like dealing with
advanced stuff could focus their attention on messages with
KLBC headers.

Additionally, the Beginners' Grammarian (BG) would commit
himself/herself to answering KLBC posts expidiciously with as
much accuracy as possible. The REAL Grammarians would be
watching as well and if the BG gave out bad advice, the
Grammarians were not far behind.

There have been three BGs so far. trI'Qal was first, then
Holtej, and finally me, charghwI'. I've held the post for
longer than it was originally intended for a person to hold it,
so I was starting to feel like it was about time to pass the
torch. Then came the Christmas Holidays from Hell (they began
in the Emergency Room with me signing my mother up for a stay
in an Intensive Care Psychiatric Unit, as she had her first
psychotic break with the apparent onset of Alzeimer's. After
that, I had a screaming fight with my housemates and decided to
find another place to live... Life got complex.).

Anyway, I didn't feel like I was likely to manage to sustain
what had been considerable energy I had been placing into this
list. While I was still responding in a timely manner, I was
never presenting any new tutorial material to the list and I
was, well, more than a little stressed out.

I retired and nobody replaced me. The list now has no BG, and
both regular Grammarians are rather distracted by other
realities, so the list is more in limbo than it has been for
most of its history. I hate to see it happen and would LIKE to
step back in to help, but I'm trying to recognize my personal
limits. I'm also not sure it is really healthy for the list.

For months, I was essentially THE grammarian here, yet my title
has always been BG, which is supposed to be temporary. I was
starting to feel like I did at my job when for nearly 4 years
they worked me 40 hours a week in what was called a
temporary/part time position, which meant that I was paid less
and got no benefits, though I did the same work as the full
time people. Anyway, if I'm not going to be a permanent
grammarian, there really should be a limit on how long I'm
posted as a temporary one. [end of snit]

I think yoDtargh ought to be the next BG. He has shown both the
energy and the skill level appropriate for BG, and while he may
not be up for full Grammarian level of skill, part of the idea
of BG as rotating position is that when you have to respond to
several posts a day about Klingon grammar, etc. you quite
naturally get better at it. My skills with the language have
accumulated mostly during my stint as BG.

Meanwhile, I think he just signed off for Spring Break, so this
is a moot point for a couple weeks, anyway.

So, now does KLBC make any sense? It was considered to be a
better solution than creating a separate list for beginners,
since people could switch back and forth, choosing daily what
they wanted to participate in without having to subscribe and
unsubscribe every time they changed their minds.

> --------------------------------------------
> Alan Anderson              Delco Electronics
> {ghunchu'wI'}       Remanufacturing Services
>         Test Equipment System Software Group
> 

charghwI'
-- 

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