I found the following exchange and thought others here might find this interesting:

Originally Posted by Exarch View Post:

"why waste ur time, man; why not learn a language that is truly dying. like French."

Reply:
Well you seem to have a lack of control of the English language, so your not exactly in a position to suggest things. But I'll talk to you as if you are. So in that sense, why not French? Well, French is a regular language. It is not spoken frequently, diminishing its actual use. It is a regular language, so there's nothing special about it. It doesn't tech anything more than any other language does. I don't plan on going to France. I'm not French.

Reasons to learn it [Esperanto]? Well, it's a unique neutral language that teaches a lot about grammatical structure, and has more uses internationally than French. And instead of dying out, it is slowly growing. So I really don't see why I would pick French over it?"

...here:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=47...

cFlat7:I found the following exchange and thought others here might find this interesting:

Originally Posted by Exarch View Post:

"why waste ur time, man; why not learn a language that is truly dying. like French."

Reply:
Well you seem to have a lack of control of the English language, so your not exactly in a position to suggest things. But I'll talk to you as if you are. So in that sense, why not French? Well, French is a regular language. It is not spoken frequently, diminishing its actual use. It is a regular language, so there's nothing special about it. It doesn't tech anything more than any other language does. I don't plan on going to France. I'm not French.

Reasons to learn it [Esperanto]? Well, it's a unique neutral language that teaches a lot about grammatical structure, and has more uses internationally than French. And instead of dying out, it is slowly growing. So I really don't see why I would pick French over it?"

...here:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=47...

Ne ĉagreniĝu pro la stultaj aferoj kiujn iuj homoj diras. Krom, vi estas liberulo kaj gxi inkluzivas havantan la rajton de elekti tion kion vi volas studadi.

Administrator: This is the English forum, so please translate your message into English, or it will be deleted.

I wouldn’t even pay attention to such ignorance.

cFlat7: [Esperanto...] has more uses internationally than French.

I doubt it. I think French in certain parts of the world is pretty useful, and has many many more speakers than esperanto. Even for example in the united states there are more mother tongue speaker of french than that there are speakers of esperanto in the whole world, and many many more people in the US learnt French somewhat as a second language than Esperanto.

cFlat7:I found the following exchange and thought others here might find this interesting:

Originally Posted by Exarch View Post:

"why waste ur time, man; why not learn a language that is truly dying. like French."

Reply:
Well you seem to have a lack of control of the English language, so your not exactly in a position to suggest things. But I'll talk to you as if you are. So in that sense, why not French? Well, French is a regular language. It is not spoken frequently, diminishing its actual use. It is a regular language, so there's nothing special about it. It doesn't tech anything more than any other language does. I don't plan on going to France. I'm not French.

Reasons to learn it [Esperanto]? Well, it's a unique neutral language that teaches a lot about grammatical structure, and has more uses internationally than French. And instead of dying out, it is slowly growing. So I really don't see why I would pick French over it?"

...here:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=47...

Ne ĉagreniĝu pro la stultaj aferoj kiujn iuj homoj diras. Krom, vi estas liberulo kaj gxi inkluzivas havantan la rajton de elekti tion kion vi volas studadi.

I always forget that I cannot write in Esperanto in here. Ok. Translation: Do not worry about the stupid things some people say. Besides, you are a free person and it includes the right to choose what you want to study.

There is a line of reasoning which goes around, which says 'why spend your time doing X when you should be doing something like curing cancer or ending world hunger' or something huge and serious. It's not a very good line of reasoning as it doesn't take into account how people act, and what motivates us. It's corny, but while people are pleased when they have lots of money, they are happy when they are doing what they really want to do.

Administrator: This is the English forum, so please translate your message into English, or it will be deleted.

La lingvo-polico, denove! It makes perfect sense if you are answering a beginner's question in a national language forum that you should use the national language.

But doesn't it rather give the impression that nobody speaks Esperanto or it is too difficult to understand written texts in that language if casual opinions in Esperanto are supressed.

It strikes one as particularly odd in the English language Forum, as so many of the contributors are not actually native speakers, and at times it would be much easier to understand their contributions if they were in Esperanto.

Translation (into Esperanto): Do not worry about the stupid things some people say. Besides, you are a free person and it includes the right to choose what you want to study.

Ne ĝeniĝu pro la stultaĵoj, kiujn diras iuj. Cetere, kiel libera homo, vi plene rajtas studi kion ajn, laŭ via propra elekto.

sudanglo:It strikes one as particularly odd in the English language Forum, as so many of the contributors are not actually native speakers, and at times it would be much easier to understand their contributions if they were in Esperanto.

I agree with you. English is not my mother tongue and I speak it because I am living in the United States now. However, this is a place for learning and sharing in Esperanto mainly. Why will someone erase something that it is written in the target language?

This has already been discussed numerous times. The forum rules state that you have to write in the language the subboard is in, though you may provide a translation to any other language. And I think this is a good thing - after all, if you click "In English", you expect discussions in English, don't you?

sudanglo:It strikes one as particularly odd in the English language Forum, as so many of the contributors are not actually native speakers, and at times it would be much easier to understand their contributions if they were in Esperanto.

I agree. Let's close down the English forum to force everyone to go to the Esperanto forum, because we can understand each other much better in Esperanto. We clearly don't need an English forum, since everyone speaks Esperanto better than they speak English.

Right?

What's what you say? Some people don't speak Esperanto yet? So it's worth having a forum with conversations in a language they speak, so they can ask questions and get an answer they understand? Like, oh, say, an ENGLISH forum? With conversations in... wait for it... English?

Right.

As we've discussed ad nauseum, if you want to have discussions in Esperanto, I heartily encourage you to do so. In the Esperanto forums. This forum is for English. You don't like it? No one forced you to sign up for an account here. The rule is quite clear in the terms and conditions that you accepted when you registered. If you didn't accept the rule you shouldn't have signed up. That's what being a grown-up is all about. We realise that whinging and moaning isn't the way to solve anything.