WIP Discussion (Part 1!)

[dragoongfa]

Alternatively they're assuming that the language is 'simple' like trade and not the pigs breakfast of exceptions, special rules and stolen terms that English is.

I don't want to imagine what would happen if Greek had somehow become the limba franca of the Outsider universe

[GeoModder]

Alternatively they're assuming that the language is 'simple' like trade and not the pigs breakfast of exceptions, special rules and stolen terms that English is.

I don't want to imagine what would happen if Greek had somehow become the limba franca of the Outsider universe

Which version of the language?

[JQBogus]

An average English speaker has about 20,000 words in their active vocabulary.

If Beryl can learn 5 words per minute (Alex speaks the word, and gives a brief definition) then it will take her about a week of 12 hour sessions to get them all. Though I suspect Beryl would spend a LOT of time telling Alex that "You already told me that one" after a few hours or days. Her memory may be perfect, but his isn't.

[Karst45]

but what if Alex, being a smart ass, were to actually change from argo to argo each of his sentence. or even switching language completly.


Beryl: But... didnt you said this was a chair a few minutes ago? why is it now a chaise?

Alex: Veni, vidi, vici

Beryl: *nosebleed*

[Razor One]

"Well, English is the lingua franca of the Terran Colonial Authority."

"Those words did not sound like English, Ensign Jardin, the pronunciation of the vowels seem off."

"Ah yes, 'lingua franca' is what's called a loanword, it comes from french, it means 'the language of the french'."

"But you're not french? And how did french words come to be in the english language? Was there a conquest?"

"Several, going both ways. The land from which english comes from was once the center of an early worldspanning empire and such tended to borrow a lot of words from other languages for things that they'd never encountered before."

"Such as?"

"Kamikaze from japanese, meaning a suicide attack, caveat emptor from latin, meaning buyer beware, diva from italian meaning a singer, matryoshka from russian, meaning a series of dolls nested one inside the other, yoyo from tagalog, a childs toy that comes on a string, mako from maori, the name of a shark, a seagoing predator-"

"How many of these loanwords does english have?"

"I have... no idea. Hundreds? Thousands?"

"All absorbed from other languages and cultures. It's strange how your species has so many, but without sanzai I suppose... hmmm. Has this already occurred with the Trade Language?"

"I've already incorporated sanzai and lotai into my vocabulary. You've already started incorporating some English into your speech mannerisms."

"What?"

"Just before, you said 'hmmm', something you say when you're thinking of what to say."

"Ah, I see, you've infected me with your mannerisms."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"On the contrary. It has become far easier to tease Fireblade, so long as it is done through the comms."

[dragoongfa]

It's a good thing then that Alex isn't a biologist or a MD, for various vocabulary reasons.

[Michael]

Justa quick question; Arioch is still alive, yes?

[majorminor]

He posted in this thread about 2 days ago, so he still exists.

[GeoModder]

And I haven't heard a thing about a Big One at the San Andreas Fault since then so...

[Krulle]

Justa quick question; Arioch is still alive, yes?

Here you can see when he last posted. (about 7 hours before your post)
His "last visited" is switched off, so you can't check that, but his last post, from Sunday (yesterday) is a good indication anyway.

I'm a bit torn in this regard:
If he would work more on the comic and pass by less often here, he might get the page done faster, but the update period might still be long.
But if he does not give a lifesign while working on the comics, this community looses it's binding member and might drift apart.
Which would likely mean end of comic-story.
Plus coming here might be done in-between work, when he could not work on the comic anyway.

To sum up: He's showing himself here often, thus letting us know he's alive and the comic and the Outsiderverse is still central in his heart.
I find that a very promising sign.
Now I need to stop making calculations how long it'll take until the story is finished....

[Razor One]

Arioch's main drain on time judging by his posts on the subject in the past has always been work related. We also have to allow for the fact that after a busy and long work week, he might be a tad tired and would look forward to relaxing on the weekend like anyone else.

Posting on the forum is completely unlikely to be an actual drain on the comic though. It takes only a few minutes to type something up or to answer a question and even less time to read it, whereas a panel on the comic could take anywhere between an hour or two days to get just right depending on his process.

Posting on the forum is a good sign regardless, it shows us that he remains invested in the project and the small community that's sprung up around it and it'd be easy to call the comic dead otherwise.

If you want more regular updates (or at least, more frequent updates ) the way towards getting that would be to free up Arioch from the burden of a 9 - 5 job whilst ensuring he remains capable of supporting himself and any dependents. The donate button is up on the main page, and while we could all donate a bit, I doubt we've got the numbers to make that work without it being extremely costly for us.

I do recall some talk of a Patreon thing. Not sure what's happening on that front, but I assume it's getting eternally delayed for the same reason as the comic; Arioch being eternally swamped with work.

I'm not privy to Arioch's private life (the guy deserves his privacy after all) so all I can really do is speculate, but it seems the most likely reason given what we know.

Look at it this way. The comic has had irregular updates for about 15 years now and is still going. Sometimes we get a good year with lots of updates, sometimes we get a bad year with updates far and few between. And its still here. Still going. That's dedication you've got to appreciate.

[Krulle]

The comic has had irregular updates for about 15 years now and is still going. Sometimes we get a good year with lots of updates, sometimes we get a bad year with updates far and few between. And its still here. Still going. That's dedication you've got to appreciate.

I do, that's why I decided to register and be an Outsider... :=)

And he deserves all the time he needs. I'm a father of three young ones, and my wife is working as well. Sometimes there's no time left to do all: work, family, household, garden, keep up wqith friends and family, ....
Currently I'd prefer to have about 30 hours per day.

If he disappears, I suspect we'll notice about a year later, when the webhoster pulls the plug...

[Sweforce]

I completely agree with Razor One with need to calm down from time to time. And if I understand this right Jim Francis work with other comics and if so Outsider is a private side project. As such I can understand if he is just sick of drawing comics all days and need to let that rest to recharge. He could step up Outsider production by making it an official project but if he does that then there would be a boss around that could give orders about content. We can give suggestion but refuse to obey the boss and you get fired.

[discord]

http://stars-in-shadow.com/ <--- one of the other things he is working on.

[MrNerdHair]

We need a per-page Patreon for Arioch stat. I've been waiting for the ability to give this way for about a year now. There's something motivating about the promise of money that helps the creative juices flow!

[Krulle]

You could donate using his donate link every time he updates...
No need for the payment provider AND patreon to get their share.

[Sweforce]

You could donate using his donate link every time he updates...
No need for the payment provider AND patreon to get their share.

Yes I have already done this once and I can do so again but the $100 donation was a bulk payment for all the past ones. A $10-20 or so per page is doable thou. If enough people donate enough then producing Outsider may be become his extra income. By the way we should the latest post on Facebook as well to draw in attention from our friends and family. The ridicule we may attract for reading a space amazon comic is a sacrifice we just have to live with.

[Krulle]

I do not have a facebook account...

[Sweforce]

I do not have a facebook account...

Then spread the word the way you can.

[majorminor]

We must prepare as many as we can for our new blue space elf overlords.