I have had my first thought of an issue that I think not just the Sidosi community, but the Solresol community in general should seriously consider. With the recent launch of a Solresol subreddit, the Solresol community (and likely the Sidosi community as well) will grow. I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but problems will arise if we continue "running" the community the way we are, but start to grow. Already we have discovered many issues with the Solresol language, but have not really come to any clear-cut solutions. I realize, of course, that in many cases, Solresol offers the freedom of multiple solutions to a problem. However, as we now start to tinker with the core grammar of Solresol, writing what neither Sudre nor Gajewski have written (to our knowledge), I am wondering if we could use more structure and governance.
Many natural and constructed languages have governing bodies (English is a notable exception). Interlingua is an auxiliary language that currently does not have a governing body, but there was a governing body during its development that defined how to expand and essentially future-proof the language, something I'm not sure we could accomplish with Solresol. These bodies naturally publish maintaining an official book of words, grammar, and the like. The main purpose of these bodies is to govern a standard version of the language, so users of the language have a point of reference. Otherwise, each user could define their own "standard", and the language would (likely) fall apart because no one could understand each other.
Anyway, with the prospect of the growth of the Solresol community, I am beginning to worry about this, because I have put a lot effort into the community myself (not counting out people like Greg Baker, Stephen Rice, and Garrison Osteen who have also made tremendous contributions). I would not want to see users of Solresol disagree, and then suddenly there's a Solresol-A and Solresol-B. I won't go into Sarus, an actual derivative of Solresol with "improvements", which seems to have had minimal success anyway. I'm sure, though, that those contributors to Solresol that I just mentioned wouldn't want their efforts to be undercut by a language split, either. Especially with the fragile state in which Solresol currently is (pretty much untouched since its prime, until recently), some structure may help define a clear purpose and some procedures to advance the language in a fair and recognized way. So, on to the paragraph of questions...
Does Solresol need a governing body at this point? Will Solresol ever need a governing body? If yes, to either of those, how is it decided who has power over decisions? Who would do what (obviously there's more to governing a language than just the actual words and grammar)? What all would be covered in the body's bylaws? Any other thoughts I didn't cover?
Many natural and constructed languages have governing bodies (English is a notable exception). Interlingua is an auxiliary language that currently does not have a governing body, but there was a governing body during its development that defined how to expand and essentially future-proof the language, something I'm not sure we could accomplish with Solresol. These bodies naturally publish maintaining an official book of words, grammar, and the like. The main purpose of these bodies is to govern a standard version of the language, so users of the language have a point of reference. Otherwise, each user could define their own "standard", and the language would (likely) fall apart because no one could understand each other.
Anyway, with the prospect of the growth of the Solresol community, I am beginning to worry about this, because I have put a lot effort into the community myself (not counting out people like Greg Baker, Stephen Rice, and Garrison Osteen who have also made tremendous contributions). I would not want to see users of Solresol disagree, and then suddenly there's a Solresol-A and Solresol-B. I won't go into Sarus, an actual derivative of Solresol with "improvements", which seems to have had minimal success anyway. I'm sure, though, that those contributors to Solresol that I just mentioned wouldn't want their efforts to be undercut by a language split, either. Especially with the fragile state in which Solresol currently is (pretty much untouched since its prime, until recently), some structure may help define a clear purpose and some procedures to advance the language in a fair and recognized way. So, on to the paragraph of questions...
Does Solresol need a governing body at this point? Will Solresol ever need a governing body? If yes, to either of those, how is it decided who has power over decisions? Who would do what (obviously there's more to governing a language than just the actual words and grammar)? What all would be covered in the body's bylaws? Any other thoughts I didn't cover?