Not on TWs, but on 2K

Jordan Yates has just posted On TWs and 20K by Jordan Yates on Jordan Yates’s Blog. With the laudable conclusion

I’m not here to be a Top Writer or to get followers. I just want to write.

This is true. The quill and the followers are gravy.

Though I’ve written stuff in a vacuum for years: my academic papers, with no audience and no recognition. And that’s why I’m not writing academic papers any more.

Anyway. I’m not writing about the quill here, I’ve said too much already. But just as Jordan has just hit 20K followers with no quill, I have just hit 2K followers, with no quill.

To celebrate me (not that many will see this): I don’t track followers any more, too many of you for it to be feasible. Anyone reading this that I haven’t interacted with already: why are you following me? And what would like to see more or less of?

Why was Byun Baekjin banned?

2017–03–27 by Nick Nicholas on Necrologue

Byun’s own understanding, as relayed via Emlyn Shen:

… I was notified by Quora mods via email that I was banned for possessing multiple accounts on Quora.

This is a completely false charge. I’ve always been a law-abiding Quoran. I never violated BNBR policies or any other Quoran community guidelines worthy of a ban. I take Quora’s policies very seriously. And I never had more than 1 account on Quora.

There is another Quoran account under a similar name: Baekjin Byun. What are the odds that our names are nearly identical, if this is the reason why Quoran mods charged me?

Very frankly, Quora is an amazing community. The concept is simply fantastic. Free knowledge to share with the world? Genius. Also very frankly, I am very frustrated with Quoran mods. As great As they are, they make many mistakes in “modding”. I was initially edit blocked for supposedly violating “fake-name” policy, for which I made a successful appeal. And now this issue.

From what I understand from her comment, Byun is appealing.

Why doesn’t Mongolia use the Uighur script again and leave out Cyrillic?

Read the fine print of the caption in the image of what Wikipedia would look like in Mongolian script, at Mongolian script – Wikipedia.

Mongolian Wikipedia preview. A representation of what mn.wiki would look like if Mongolian script support was properly implemented. Mn.wiki already exists, but support has not been implemented. Not all text is “real Mongolian” — only the actual text of the article, and the name thereof.

Vertical scripts are not well supported on computers. Until they are, abandoning Cyrillic would be suicidal for Mongolia. Conversely, of course, if they don’t abandon Cyrillic, there is little incentive for anyone to improve vertical script support.

There are cases where national governments have lobbied Silicon Valley to improve their scripts support. I wish I remember which Asian country it was, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Mongolia.

Who are the high-end literary types on Quora?

No question, Michael Masiello. Formerly a literature Professor, and still a teacher right here on Quora. Give him a decent (and not too broad) A2A; it’s what he’s been missing.

Do not, on the other hand, ask him a homework question. Just don’t.