There are less posts in esperanto in the forum than in english and other languages

Is "Lernu" an non esperanto website ?

Nooooooo !!

So you better have to write with our common language

Eh?

The language with the most number of posts is Esperanto, with a total of 25223 (as of the moment).

The next largest posting language is English, but with only 13354 posts - just slightly over half as many as Esperanto has.

I'd say the forum favors Esperanto.

@RiotNrrd: I think he was talking about all the national languages together which total 31,677 messages. Which is indeed more than the 25,223 that the Esperanto section boasts.

To the original poster, I would say that Lernu! is a multilingual site for learners of Esperanto. Not every learner is fluent in Esperanto.

Al la unua afiŝinto, mi dirus ke Lernu! estas multlingva retejo por lernantoj de Esperanto. Ne ĉiu lernanto flue parolas Esperanton.

I think Frankouche is right. Don't look at the absolute number of messages, look at the number of new messages within the last months. And look at the contents of these messages, there is almost no more real discussion in the Esperanto forum.
And you must admit that a lot of people from not english speaking countries are now diskussing here (like me ), although they also have sufficient Esperanto knowledges.
And don't forget that there are also english speaking people with very good Esperanto knowlegdes who never use the Esperanto forum.
But using Esperanto is not a duty or a punishment, so if you don't want, ...

I am a fluent speaker and I hardly ever use the Esperanto forums here. There are lots of Esperanto forums online where fluent speakers go to discuss issues. They don't really have a reason to come here to lernu. Since this website is aimed at beginners, the national language forums are more popular. Fluent speakers like me hang out in national language forums to help out beginners.

http://www.unilang.org/viewforum.php?f=56

Here's one while searching in English. About.com has many for things like Japanese and French so maybe they might also have an EO forum tucked away in there too.

EDIT: I swear Ipernity has forums or something like them somewhere... And considering the amount of EO speakers who use it, well, might be a good place to start looking. Facebook also has forums on their Esperanto Groups, don't know how active they are though.

R2D2!:

erinja:There are lots of Esperanto forums online...

Where can I find those? —Ilhuıtemoc

One possibility is to search among the many Yahoo groups. Here are some examples:
Sciences, 'culture' (literature), politics, medicine, short stories, music, tourism, UEA, vegetarians.

There is often vigorous debate in the "comments" section following articles in Libera Folio. But it's true, e-mail listservs and news groups are home to some of the most active Esperanto discussion.

Frankouche:There are less posts in esperanto in the forum than in english and other languages

Is "Lernu" an non esperanto website ?

Nooooooo !!

So you better have to write with our common language

Although just one posting, this illustrates a prevalent (though not universal) attitude that I've found perplexing as a novice in Esperanto; we even have a verb reflecting it (krokodili). This seems harmful to me, and I wonder why it would be widespread!

From a practical standpoint, not all Eo speakers will have the fluency to discuss subtle nuances of meaning (e.g., the recent thread about the 4 types of 'for').
But more importantly, if we discourage and avoid discussions about Esperanto in national languages, we exclude non-speakers from our conversation -- and when I was on the outside, I did get the impression that the Esperanto community was a bit insular! (As a beginner, it was a relief to recently stumble across this English section on lernu!, where it will be possible to ask the questions I'm not yet able to express in Eo. There is the perverse aspect that those most affected by Eo-only policy are, depending on the venue, unable to join in discussion about it.)

If anything, we need to find more ways to engage with the outside world -- for example, occasional mixed meetings where non-speakers are welcome to stop by, hear the language spoken, meet both fluent speakers and novices, and chat about it. Many non-speakers are misinformed about the goals of Esperanto (I used to think its speakers all believed Eo would replace the national languages rather than being a second language), and are lacking information that might persuade them to come aboard.

Am I mistaken in my impressions about the prevalence of anti-krokodili sentiment? Any thoughts about why it remains, and its impact on outreach? (Or are there English-language articles or discussion on the topic I should read first?)

Being such a novice, it's possible that my impressions are way off the mark. But, to the extent that they reflect what the non-Esperanto world sees, they may be relevant.

(Edit: By the way, I don't mean to single out the original poster. Although he provides an example, clearly there are many Eo speakers who feel likewise; e.g., Cafe Press carries "ne krokodilu al mi!" items.)

Glad to be learning, and to be part of this forum,

P.s. Many thanks to the fluent speakers who visit this forum to help the rest of us! It's gratifying to see how many ways help is offered to us beginners.

The way I see it, there are two main needs here. Users need both...

1) A place where they can ask questions or have conversations in a language they understand, prior to becoming fluent in Esperanto
2) A place where they can practice Esperanto only, once they have achieved some fluency.

Our forums here meet both needs. The national language forums are for people who haven't yet gotten to the point that they are ready for the Esperanto-only forums. The Esperanto-only forums are for those who are.

The problem with allowing national-language posts in the Esperanto sections is that you will start to get a lot of posts there in languages that YOU can't read or converse in. It will become a mishmash of languages, and each non-Esperanto post will only be readable to a subset of the students. This is not helpful.

When I'm in the Esperanto-only forums, and I come across a post completely in French, or Russian, or Lithuanian, I simply have to skip over it; I am left out of the discussion. That is counter to the idea behind Esperanto, and counter to the reason a lot of people visit these forums.

The problem of allowing Esperanto-only posts in the national language forums is similar: beginners (probably) can't read them. They are then left out of the discussion. I know that when I was new to the language, being confronted by a big block of text entirely in Esperanto was intimidating. We're not trying to scare the beginners, after all! So it's a good idea to have a place where that won't (or, at least, shouldn't) happen.

I understand being a beginner. Four years ago, I didn't speak a word of Esperanto (I signed up at Lernu on Oct 10, 2005). And it took a while before I felt comfortable posting anything in the Esperanto-only areas. Even then, what I posted was mostly ungrammatical dreck at that point; the feedback on that dreck was instrumental in helping me get it right. I am glad that there is a set of forums where we can all meet JUST in Esperanto. The apparent restrictiveness of those forums is actually a plus, as far as learning is concerned.