Sudanglo, it's not about being "prissy", it's about the site's terms of service.

The terms of service state that profanities should only be found in the word-learning section that deals with that.

This site is to be kept as family-friendly as possible. Perhaps young children aren't reading these forums, but I have had students as young as 11, and as young as 7 with parental help. This site is used by all kinds of people, from all over the world, with all different viewpoints. Avoiding use of profanity and rude language helps to keep things courteous between our users, and it helps keep us from descending into the flame wars that are found on other online forums.

Persistent use of profanity even after being warned may result in being blocked from the forums, or in extreme cases, having your account deleted.

Personnaly I really thought that esperantists girls were ugly on average... until I took part to esperanto events . So I have no doubt about that.

concerning profanity, it IS against the terms of use.

Also, there may or may not be children using Lernu! However, those children may or may not cuss worse than many adults.

The concern isn't only about children. Profanity should be excluded for the sake of many people -- whether they are children or adults -- who for religious, cultural or whatever reason find profanity unpleasant or even repulsive. There shouldn't be profanity chasing them away from Lernu!

@ Genjix:

"Why aren't Esperantists doing *&$% all?"

This is a gross over-generalization. When you compare your anarchists or aspiring astronomers with esperantists, you overlook (or disregard, depending on whether you do it on purpose) the fact that the Esperanto "movement" is fundamentally different from the groups you compared it with for the sole reason that esperantist "society" is extremely heterogeneous: whereas your anarchists/aspiring astronomers often share many common traits (ex: a common perception of reality, common values, common political ideals, common aspirations, a common lifestyle, etc), esperantists tend to be very different from one another. I have personally had the strangest, yet most fruitful conversations with engineer esperantists, metalhead esperantists, marxist-leninist esperantist, Muslim esperantists, Polish-guy-who-lives-in-Japan esperantists, anarchist esperantists, and the list goes on. Many of these people are very different from me, yet the one thing that held us together was Esperanto. So, to answer your generalization about why esperantists are perceived to be inactive: we all lead very different lives, and the thousands of kilometers which often separate us make it difficult (although not impossible) to collaborate on long-term projects.

"I myself am planning a documentary in Esperanto [...]"

Please make that documentary. I am looking forward to watching it. I do share your frustration regarding the frequently sub-par quality of esperantist media input. So, if you are able to push the bar upward, by all means, do it.

"My conclusion is that Esperanto speakers have nothing to talk about [...] and the movement looks passive."

Please look at the bible I just wrote under your first assumption. In addition, I'd like to say that some of us do actively collaborate across time zones to bring some decent material.

And to that, I'd like to add that the esperantist community is one of the most successful communities when it comes to coordinating multinational cultural projects: I am very proud of that.

I don't know of many musicians, say in the U.S., who actively seek collaborations with fellow musicians in, say, Korea, or Spain, or Morocco, or Russia, to write a song, or an album together. We, in Esperantujo, actually do that on the regular. So beat that.

Genjix:
My conclusion is that Esperanto speakers have nothing to talk about. Nothing to talk about, and the movement looks passive.

Make some noise!

twitter.com/KienLi

"Oficiala retpaĝo de la filmo "Esperanto" studiobema.com/esperanto Treege kreema, eksperimenta

about 2 hours ago via Seesmic twhirl"

"Nova filmo "Esperanto" de ekstermovada filmoproduktanto Anoncfilmeto: vimeo.com Ankoraŭ unu

about 2 hours ago via Seesmic twhirl"

I don't know more as mentioned above.

@Uvi, your argument not sense much make. Plenty of common themes exist like peace and culture-love.

which often separate us make it difficult (although not impossible) to collaborate on long-term projects.

...

And to that, I'd like to add that the esperantist community is one of the most successful communities when it comes to coordinating multinational cultural projects

bone

@qwertz- that is an English film!

The Documentary

Thanks for your encouraging support. We started kicking the idea around one year ago for fun. I'm working on writing skills as I possess the technical skills from my old work making video games. Considering the time to gather material, condense ideas and write them, it might take one year before work starts on them; that is additional time for me to become good at Esperanto.

An overview is found at our early scratchpad (the format might change), and old May draft (my writing has changed much since and this is very rough). Other interesting links give you a sense of the direction. Unfortunately most work is rough or non-virtual My youtube favourites runs down themes that fill my interests.

No dogmas and unquestioning belief here. Only healthy skepticism and unbridled curiousity. And a passion for the exciting future of humanity.

Devoted to nature and the secret beauty all around us. The spirit of men who broke our ignorance and mental shackles over the ages. Some would have preferred to stay home, comfortable in their prisons. Those few who opposed prevailing lies: we thank them for liberating us.

One day we may expand onto Mars as a stepping stone to expansion through space; a positive future for humanity. One where abundant resources allows people freedom to explore ideas, and we see our neighbours as brothers in the global party of ideals. Not as competitors for rapidly dwindling resources in a rascist world, where we never left earth.

Let us not forget our roots on mother earth who nurtured us. Science is as much about the past as the future. Biology is as much history as it is science.

Inspired by The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronovski, Connections by James Burke and the brilliant Cosmos by Carl Sagan. We live in an amazing age- maybe a second renaissance. There's so many new developments to write about; Linux+internet, astronomy, evolution, history, urban planning, neurology, prehistory, and lots more!!!!

Young =/= cool. This video is uninspired, childish and makes Esperanto look very uncool. Conversely here's a video done well which makes Esperantanoj look like a bunch of cool guys and not fringe weirdos

Genjix:@Uvi, your argument not sense much make. Plenty of common themes exist like peace and culture-love.

Yeah but since when did that ever make head way? Last time I checked, people are more likely to relate to an advertisement featuring a half naked cxarmulo of the opposite sex than one that promotes the joy of abstaining from killing your neighbour because he stole your shoes. .

That said, if we COMBINE the sex appeal with the peace and culture love, that's a winning scenario right there. After all, I recall someone saying that US troops aren't really learning arabic at as higher rate as they did whatever other languages in whatever other wars, simply because of the female factor, and unlike Europe and Asia, the Middle East has a different morality code regarding such canoodling. They might have been talking utter bullocks but what they said had some good thinking behind it.

- I didn't say that made headway.

- I said there are common themes

- Those are typical examples of common themes (others can include vegetarianism, leftism, ...)

- I reasoned that critical mass and the image of activity for propaganda is much more important than glamour/sex appeal/whatever you say.

I repeat: I don't learn Esperanto because I'm desperate. I'd much rather have progress and things happening than a handful of do-nothing bimbos. That's what makes a movement successful. Desirable people will then be automatically attracted to the movement and their magnetism will bring others.

Trying to birth the chicken before the egg is artificial and a false illusion.

For instance, having done work professional in Free Software, the environment is made up of all ages and is based on merit. I think many of you are coloured by your brainwashing from mass media and believe everyone (and those who would engage Esperanto) actually worships talentless pop-idols, although I have no grudge against media stars (some who have worked very hard).

Linux:
brazil
barcelona
amsterdam
olpc
germany
germany
russia

There's many more examples, but I don't take photos often.

Here's a cool pic from a march. Dude is probably about 40, but the mascot for a protest by thousands.

Stop these ideas. They are incredibly naive and uninspired. "Lets make pretty people join and then others will want to join!", erm no. Then you just attract undesirables and diminish the effectiveness of the group. You want desirable cool people from the offset. And you only attract them by offering something of value. No one wants to join a dead movement. And you only join Esperanto for girls if you're really lacking pussy.