Christa627:I also agree with Erin's assessment of Ido as silly-looking; I some time back out of curiosity went to the Ido Wikipedia, to see what the language looks like, and thought that it looked like an odd mixture of languages. I think the main culprit for that was the -ar ending for infinitives; it just looks so Spanish to me. There were some other things I identified as contributing to that impression, but I don't remember what they were now. I also went to the Interlingua Wikipedia, and had a similar impression. I could understand quite a bit of the content, but found it somewhat tiring (of course, as it is a different language, after all!).

...

All I can say is that in my humble opinion, Esperanto's aesthetics are better than those of Ido or Interlingua; I think it looks more natural and coherent.

Certainly there are many subjective, personal opinions about this or that constructed international auxiliary language. For example, I myself do not at all consider Ido to be "silly looking," and I myself consider Interlingua to be, rather, quite elegant. Obviously, opinions differ.

In the end, I presume that it will not be personal subjective opinions or even linguistic characteristics that will determine whether this or that auxiliary language succeeds. At one time I was rather proficient in French, and it was once a widespread auxiliary language in western culture, but I do not consider it appropriate as a worldwide auxiliary. Similarly, although I myself am a university educated native speaker of English, I know how difficult it is for adult learners to gain any significant mastery of. (I have tried to help refugees struggle with the bizarre complexities, to say nothing of the orthography, of English.)

Again, in the end it is not pure linguistic characteristics but other socio-economic-political factors which will determine whether any individual conIAL will have widespread acceptance, and that specifically includes Esperanto. It is just that I think E-o has a slight edge over all the others.

The problem with constructed languages is that once you begin making words, its very hard to stop. Its a huge temptation for people to keep changing and meddling with their languages. Unfortunately, this discourages people from learning it (why learn something that's going to change) and redirects efforts to arguing about language rather than actually learning it. This is why it is necessary for Esperanto to have an unchangeable foundation. Ido went against this but ended up splintering into many different conlangs each claimed to be superior.

The main point that Ido missed is that the most important part of a conlang is not to have the most perfect grammar rules (Ido was created by Frenchmen who idea of a best language was one that resembled French) but one that has a community and culture behind it. If you strive for linguistic perfection, you'll never suceed. Its better to have a language that is 95% logical with a strong community behind it, than one that is completely perfect that no one speaks.

rapn21:The problem with constructed languages is that once you begin making words, its very hard to stop. Its a huge temptation for people to keep changing and meddling with their languages. Unfortunately, this discourages people from learning it (why learn something that's going to change) and redirects efforts to arguing about language rather than actually learning it. This is why it is necessary for Esperanto to have an unchangeable foundation. Ido went against this but ended up splintering into many different conlangs each claimed to be superior.

The main point that Ido missed is that the most important part of a conlang is not to have the most perfect grammar rules (Ido was created by Frenchmen who idea of a best language was one that resembled French) but one that has a community and culture behind it. If you strive for linguistic perfection, you'll never suceed. Its better to have a language that is 95% logical with a strong community behind it, than one that is completely perfect that no one speaks.

This is also a true and studied phenomenon in the other category of conlangs: computer programming languages. I would say Esperanto holds a similar position among conlangs to what C/C++ holds in the programming world in that it is THE standard language. Everybody learns it because everybody uses it; this is just how English and any other standard language gets its position. C does not routinely gain new features, and forms a fairly unchangeable foundation. You have dozens of other programming languages with their own little communities of advocates, each claiming that their language is superior to C. In most cases they are right, but whatever technical/theoretical/actual superiority they do have is entirely eclipsed by the fact that their language is not C. Lisp is beautiful, simple, and one of the most powerful languages that exists, but only a small fraction of actual software is written with any kind of Lisp. This has spawned a number of conspiracy theories, but the simplest answer is that being in the right place at the right time is (almost) everything.

One of the most interesting things about this thread is that the originator has left the group. I think that this is what sort of happened to the Ido learners with their own language. They just "faded away into the sunset".
To me it seems that a lot of beginners want to "reform" Esperanto but, if they stick with it or are "stuck" with it, they eventually accept the standard form for what it is - they become "comfortable" with the usage. I saw that happen with my husband who has had to stick with Esperanto - since he started the "craze" in our house anyway. He is also learning German and he used to like to use German roots in Esperanto. He also used to skip the accusative. Now we has unconsciously accepted things the way they are - if simply because he has heard so much Esperanto. That may have been the power that Esperanto had/has over Ido, too. One simply reads/hears it more often.

erinja:

What does this have to do with the topic of this thread ("Why not Ido?" )? Is there some particular reason why you think Esperanto is better than Ido?

i alert you all that this kind of themes (comparison among languages) are not neutral and thus not just in this forum. but, sorry, i do not know a link of a real and not so biased dialog about this theme.

kiam ido fagocitat, mi eklektike trovas idon bongusta kaj digestinda, havanta interesajn ecojn (-esm- --> -j-, -esar --> -ej ktp) kvankam la gxenerala impreso estas malaltira, eble nur cxar mi lernis unue eon kaj ili suficxe similas. aldona trajto de esperanto, kiu igas gxin avantagxa estas ke esperanto nomigxas "esperanto". mi supozas ke se esperanto nomigxus "punkto G" aux "amparo multorgasma" gxi estus dekoble aux miloble konata ol nun, kaj ke se gxi nomigxus "internacia komunikilo" gxi annombre dekonus nunan esperantonoman esperanton.

in english! i prefer E maybe because i lernt E first and they are similar enough. i recognise that some Ido features are individualy interesting and worthy of digestion. only a pair of examples, and i pray to have the luck of not being censured off of this forum because of defending ido convincingly (or only a part of Ido).

when i say or read "estis magxata" i prefer "manjesis" (in esperanto you can say plenty of things, but that), and when i say "la plejapuda sekvanta" i prefer "la unpluesma" (in esperanto you can say plenty of things, but that). of course, not yet, i did not bother to propose nothing to ido, because i do not know it, only i know some features. my first official proposal to ido, in order to outcome the popularity of esperanto is:

i recommend ido to change its name. a new one, more successful, it would be "G point language" or "multiorgasmic couple language". do not laugh, seriously, that little change of look, it would made it 1000 times more popular.

i hope that doctoro esperanto will recognise that he used that innocent trick. i give him the word.

Perhaps as amigueo suggests a little rebranding would help.
For example, "Ido ( Internaciona Dualinguo por Omni)", instead of "Ido (Improved Esperanto)".
When was the last time you heard "Chrysler (Improved Ford)", or "Apple (Improved Windows)"?
Never, that's when.
That is simply giving free advertising to the opposition.