Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by confocaloid »

get_Snacked wrote: November 1st, 2024, 12:28 pm [...] you got that right, following the link is a good idea. [...]
No, that's a misreading of what I wrote. I think it's usually better to avoid wording that changes meaning after the reader follows a link. (I.e. do not contradict the expectation)
get_Snacked wrote: November 1st, 2024, 12:28 pm [...] if someone genuinely got confused because they knew so much about CGOL to the point where they know two different p49 pi hasslers like the back of their hand, then only would they click the link.
It is unnecessary to know about two specific p49 pi hasslers, to be able to get confused about this.
The reader only needs to know that "p49" stands for period 49, and to know what "pi-heptomino hassler" means in CGoL.
The reader doesn't need to know how many different p49 pi-heptomino hasslers are known; the reader doesn't need to know any specific examples; at this point, it makes sense to assume/expect that there are many examples.
However, following the link contradicts this assumption/expectation. The page p49 pi-heptomino hassler just so happens to talk about one particular example.
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by confocaloid »

https://conwaylife.com/w/index.php?diff ... did=148158
Inconsistent mentions of usernames.
(Either all mentioned usernames should be in quotes, or none of them.
Either all mentioned usernames should be preceded by "forum user", or none of them.)

EDIT by dvgrn: I didn't change anything here. The "forum user" prefix is pretty standard, and it's okay to use it sometimes but not all the time. It's used specifically for cases where someone is getting mentioned as a discoverer, but their name doesn't link to a LifeWiki page about their discoveries.

"Forum user" and the quotation marks help provide information to readers that's equivalent to a link, saying that we're talking about a conwaylife.com community member. Some forum handles don't exactly look like names, so it's good to have the clarification when there isn't any link -- but when there is a link, I think there's no need for either "forum user" or quotation marks.

We have existing examples where quotation marks are used with the phrase "forum user" (e.g., forum user "Disaster16439") and other articles where quotation marks are not used (e.g., forum user rattlesnake). If someone wants to standardize the punctuation so that it's always forum user "handle", that seems okay to me, but it's not particularly high on my own priority list at the moment.


https://conwaylife.com/w/index.php?diff ... did=144233
I think pages about people should avoid any claims about whether or not the person is (currently) active.
(Such claims are vague. E.g. someone might be currently active, silently working on some complicated construction or proof, even if without any visible recent activity.
Further, adding such claims means the page is more likely to become outdated.)

EDIT by dvgrn: I undid this change for all of the above reasons.

https://conwaylife.com/w/index.php?diff ... did=143270
Redundant comment; a redlink by itself already implies a claim "this page needs to be created".
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by confocaloid »

In response to an edit to the previous post:

I think it's a good general rule of thumb to avoid forcing the reader to jump back and forth between pages merely to be able to comprehend the text on the basic level.
Imagine the link is removed. Does the same text still make sense? Does it read the same way?

Whether or not the intended meaning can be intuitively understood, shouldn't depend on presence of hyperlinks.

Stylistic choices (such as adding or not adding "forum user", or adding or not adding quote marks) also shouldn't depend on presence of hyperlinks.
If "forum user" is used when referring to one forum member, but omitted when referring to another forum member, then that is a distracting inconsistency at best (regardless of whether or not there are any links).
At worst, it can be interpreted as discriminatory/disrespectful language.

I think these kinds of inconsistency are a real issue that should be corrected in some way or another.
confocaloid wrote: November 4th, 2024, 8:38 pm https://conwaylife.com/w/index.php?diff ... did=148158
Inconsistent mentions of usernames.
(Either all mentioned usernames should be in quotes, or none of them.
Either all mentioned usernames should be preceded by "forum user", or none of them.)

EDIT by dvgrn: I didn't change anything here. The "forum user" prefix is pretty standard, and it's okay to use it sometimes but not all the time. It's used specifically for cases where someone is getting mentioned as a discoverer, but their name doesn't link to a LifeWiki page about their discoveries.

"Forum user" and the quotation marks help provide information to readers that's equivalent to a link, saying that we're talking about a conwaylife.com community member. Some forum handles don't exactly look like names, so it's good to have the clarification when there isn't any link -- but when there is a link, I think there's no need for either "forum user" or quotation marks.

We have existing examples where quotation marks are used with the phrase "forum user" (e.g., forum user "Disaster16439") and other articles where quotation marks are not used (e.g., forum user rattlesnake). If someone wants to standardize the punctuation so that it's always forum user "handle", that seems okay to me, but it's not particularly high on my own priority list at the moment.

[...]
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by dvgrn »

confocaloid wrote: November 5th, 2024, 5:10 am Imagine the link is removed. Does the same text still make sense? Does it read the same way?
This is the same idea that has been showing up in some of your objections to Haycat2009 removing four words from the period-49 glider gun (April 2023) article.

Thus far you've gotten feedback from Haycat2009, me, and get_Snacked about this idea of yours. It doesn't seem to us like a good rule to try to follow, so we're not planning to follow it.

Why should we have to bother imagining that a link is removed? In each case, the link is right there. It's supposed to be there. It conveys very useful information -- just by its presence, without anyone having to click it. The existence of the link reliably conveys a key fact: "this set of words is a defined term elsewhere on the LifeWiki".
confocaloid wrote: November 5th, 2024, 5:10 amWhether or not the intended meaning can be intuitively understood, shouldn't depend on presence of hyperlinks.
In these cases we're discussing, it seems to me that the intended meaning is already as clear as it's going to get.

In this latest case, adding "forum user" in front of every person's name would create an awful lot of unnecessary clutter. In the article with the edit you're objecting to, we'd have

"forum user Adam P. Goucher", "forum user iNoMed", "forum user David Raucci", "forum user James Pascua", "forum user BlinkerSpawn", "forum user ElijahKen", "forum user Period1GliderGun" ...

This seems completely unworkable to me. The consistency you're insisting on isn't worth all those extra words -- not even close.

Conversely, removing "forum user" in the one "ElijahKen" case would be a loss of perfectly good relevant information in the name of consistency.

We already have good consistency in this article. It's just that the consistent rule that the article is following is

"every first use of a user identifier should either have a link to the relevant LifeWiki user article, if one exists -- or it should be preceded by the words 'forum user' if the information in question is coming from the forums."
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by confocaloid »

dvgrn wrote: November 5th, 2024, 9:13 am
confocaloid wrote: November 5th, 2024, 5:10 am Imagine the link is removed. Does the same text still make sense? Does it read the same way?
[...]
Why should we have to bother imagining that a link is removed? In each case, the link is right there. It's supposed to be there. It conveys very useful information -- just by its presence, without anyone having to click it. The existence of the link reliably conveys a key fact: "this set of words is a defined term elsewhere on the LifeWiki".
[...]
In the case of the wiki page "Period-36 glider gun", the hyperlinks do not convey any "key fact" other than that there is a linked page (which might be a redirect). All mentioned usernames in the linked edit are forum usernames. It is inconsistent and arbitrary to use quotes for some usernames but not all of them, and it is inconsistent and arbitrary to use the label "forum user" for some but not all of them. That does not depend on presence of hyperlinks at all; the negative impression and consequences of such inconsistencies remains the same.

In the case of the wiki page "Period-49 glider gun (April 2023)", the hyperlink in the sentence "The gun uses two [[p49 pi-heptomino hassler]]s." fails to convey the intended information.
That link misleads the reader into believing[1] that "p49 pi-heptomino hassler" is a notable type of hassler oscillators, and that the linked page will list multiple known examples of "p49 pi-heptomino hasslers" which are considered noteworthy enough for inclusion. Then the claim "The gun uses two p49 pi-heptomino hasslers" reads as a claim that the gun uses two different hassler oscillators of that type (which is false, because the gun actually uses two instances of the same hassler oscillator).
Following the link again contradicts the likely intuitive meaning of the sentence; instead of listing multiple known examples of "p49 pi-heptomino hassler", the page only talks about one specific example, without any justification of this.

[1]: it is reasonable to expect that the reader of the page about a p49 glider gun is already familiar with the ideas/concepts of a "hassler oscillator", a "pi-heptomino hassler" as a specific kind of hassler oscillator, and the abbreviation "p49" meaning "period-49".

I think both the linking page and the linked page need to be changed. The linking page should be reworded to directly and clearly say that the gun uses two instances of the same hassler oscillator. The linked page should be either rewritten to become a list of all noteworthy examples of "p49 pi-heptomino hassler", or else renamed so that the pagename clearly implies that the page is about a single specific oscillator.
dvgrn wrote: November 5th, 2024, 9:13 am[...]
In the article with the edit you're objecting to, we'd have

"forum user Adam P. Goucher", "forum user iNoMed", "forum user David Raucci", "forum user James Pascua", "forum user BlinkerSpawn", "forum user ElijahKen", "forum user Period1GliderGun" ...
[...]
That is incorrect. Three out of names you mentioned aren't forum usernames, so "forum user" should not be used for those. The other four usernames all unambiguously read as usernames even without quote marks and prefixing them with labels.
dvgrn wrote: November 5th, 2024, 9:13 am [...]
We already have good consistency in this article. It's just that the consistent rule that the article is following is

"every first use of a user identifier should either have a link to the relevant LifeWiki user article, if one exists -- or it should be preceded by the words 'forum user' if the information in question is coming from the forums."
My point is that your proposed "rule" is a bad rule. It leads to negative consequences for the wiki articles.
By reading articles trying to follow your "rule", a reader is likely to get wrong impression about the local community.

I think labels such as "forum user" should be discarded entirely. Especially when not applied consistently, this carries a negative connotation, creating an impression that people here somehow discriminate each other into "forum users" and community members.
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by Haycat2009 »

Just a complication: What should be done if the user or one who discovers has neither a forum username nor a Lifewiki article?

And should I say “Forum user Haycat2009” or “Forum user Haycat Durnak?” Real name or pseudonym?
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by confocaloid »

Haycat2009 wrote: November 6th, 2024, 12:59 am Just a complication: What should be done if the user or one who discovers has neither a forum username nor a Lifewiki article?
[...]
There is a page a page in someone's userspace. IIRC, the leftmost specified column should be used for crediting someone on the wiki.
Haycat2009 wrote: November 6th, 2024, 12:59 am [...]
And should I say “Forum user Haycat2009” or “Forum user Haycat Durnak?” Real name or pseudonym?
You do understand that it's very easy to Google it and make an educated guess that neither of two is the actual real name? https://dadish.fandom.com/wiki/Space_Durnak
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by Haycat2009 »

confocaloid wrote: November 6th, 2024, 1:08 am You do understand that it's very easy to Google it and make an educated guess that neither of two is the actual real name? https://dadish.fandom.com/wiki/Space_Durnak
Coincidences do happen - there are multiple people named Simon Ekstrom (See some edits adding papers that were made by someone with the same name)

If you see my colleagues, you can ask them about my real name - this name is true and you suggesting that my name is fake is somewhat degrading.

By the way, I did not know of that website. Do you have the link to whatever that wiki is about?
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by confocaloid »

Many of relatively recent additions of "In other rules"-type sections to many main-namespace pages go against LW:NB (both in the added content not being notable enough to be added to those pages, and in many of the additions clearly going against the rule of not documenting one's own discoveries).
Special:Contributions/WhiteHawk

Many "In other rules" sections are low-quality collections of arbitrarily chosen trivia, and should be moved to some other place outside the main namespace.

Please keep in mind that there are hundreds or thousands of cellular automata, each of which could be expected to be mentioned in such a section, and there is no objective reason to mention some of those CA without mentioning other CA. Further, there are lots and lots of similar "curiosity"-type observations in lots of different CA. The majority of such "curiosities" are not anywhere near being notable enough to be mentioned in the main namespace.
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by WhiteHawk »

confocaloid wrote: December 5th, 2024, 5:21 pm Many of relatively recent additions of "In other rules"-type sections to many main-namespace pages go against LW:NB (both in the added content not being notable enough to be added to those pages, and in many of the additions clearly going against the rule of not documenting one's own discoveries).
Fixed, (Pilife is indeed a notable rule due to it's similarity to DryLife and it's stability that wasn't mentioned before). I would also argue that B34c/S234c is an important rule (and by extension B34c/S23 is as well, especially with it being named) that have garnered significant attention previosly and have numerous interesting and unique patterns, and I personally haven't discovered anything of note in those rules (I did discover things in B3/S234z, which I do admit probably wasn't the best choice for me to add, though I do think it could be notable to mention for it's discovered items).
confocaloid wrote: December 5th, 2024, 5:21 pm Many "In other rules" sections are low-quality collections of arbitrarily chosen trivia, and should be moved to some other place outside the main namespace.

Please keep in mind that there are hundreds or thousands of cellular automata, each of which could be expected to be mentioned in such a section, and there is no objective reason to mention some of those CA without mentioning other CA. Further, there are lots and lots of similar "curiosity"-type observations in lots of different CA. The majority of such "curiosities" are not anywhere near being notable enough to be mentioned in the main namespace.
Would that perhaps include the Conway+-, Conway--, and Conway+-1 rules already included, which I don't know of being notable enough, and certainly haven't been much of a notable topic recently, though the may have been historically?
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by confocaloid »

WhiteHawk wrote: December 6th, 2024, 6:19 pm [...] Would that perhaps include the Conway+-, Conway--, and Conway+-1 rules already included, which I don't know of being notable enough, and certainly haven't been much of a notable topic recently?
I would say those CA are in a different class. They were explored fairly early (before this website existed, before the currently popular notation existed, ...), and are listed in Mirek's lexicon (archived copy). I believe the investigation at the time mostly focused on those CA that were relatively easy to define/explain, in particular those that could be defined using a symmetric weighted neighbourhood:

Code: Select all

515
101
515
Because that happened before the "recent" explosion of interest in arbitrary two-state R1 Moore isotropic CA, and there were relatively few explored CA, they can be considered more notable than the vast majority of other CA explored later (as well as historically interesting).

For the CA type "two-state isotropic with range-1 Moore neighbourhood", there are 2^102 rulesets. Even if you discard those which "blink" due to B0, those which explode, those which do not support any spaceships, there are still way too many possibilities to be explored (let alone documented). There are relatively few notable CA. Some happened to receive lots of attention (whether or not they really deserved it is another question). Some are (early/first known) examples with certain "interesting" properties, like e.g. "most soups grow chaotically, but there is nevertheless advanced technology".
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by WhiteHawk »

confocaloid wrote: December 6th, 2024, 6:45 pm I would say those CA are in a different class. They were explored fairly early (before this website existed, before the currently popular notation existed, ...), and are listed in Mirek's lexicon (archived copy). I believe the investigation at the time mostly focused on those CA that were relatively easy to define/explain, in particular those that could be defined using a symmetric weighted neighbourhood:

Code: Select all

515
101
515
Because that happened before the "recent" explosion of interest in arbitrary two-state R1 Moore isotropic CA, and there were relatively few explored CA, they can be considered more notable than the vast majority of other CA explored later (as well as historically interesting).

For the CA type "two-state isotropic with range-1 Moore neighbourhood", there are 2^102 rulesets. Even if you discard those which "blink" due to B0, those which explode, those which do not support any spaceships, there are still way too many possibilities to be explored (let alone documented). There are relatively few notable CA. Some happened to receive lots of attention (whether or not they really deserved it is another question). Some are (early/first known) examples with certain "interesting" properties, like e.g. "most soups grow chaotically, but there is nevertheless advanced technology".
So what would constitute an "interesting" rule which would be worthy of inclusion on the List of isotropic non-totalistic rules in your opinion? I do feel there still are rules which would likely merit mention that aren't yet on that list.

EDIT: Also, there were a lot of links for that didn't actually lead anywhere. Would it be better to leave links going nowhere, or not put in links unless an actual page gets set up?
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by confocaloid »

WhiteHawk wrote: December 6th, 2024, 9:04 pm [...] [an unnecessary long quote of immediately preceding post omitted for brevity] [...]
So what would constitute an "interesting" rule which would be worthy of inclusion on the List of isotropic non-totalistic rules in your opinion? I do feel there still are rules which would likely merit mention that aren't yet on that list.
I'm not entirely sure that list is a good idea in the first place. There are no objective criteria for inclusion. It is impossible to list all isotropic CA. Almost certainly people will continue to disagree on what to include and what to exclude, unless/until this list goes away from the main namespace (and possibly becomes someone's userspace page).

Related discussion: OCA talk:Salad

For what it's worth, even the pagename is already confusing. (Does "non-totalistic" explicitly exclude outer-totalistic CA, or it allows them as a subset? How about CA on the hexagonal tiling, or on the triangular tiling? How about multistate CA? How about higher-range neighbourhoods? All of those can be isotropic, and optionally outer-totalistic.)
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by WhiteHawk »

confocaloid wrote: December 6th, 2024, 9:14 pm For what it's worth, even the pagename is already confusing. (Does "non-totalistic" explicitly exclude outer-totalistic CA, or it allows them as a subset?
There is a separate page for Life-like rules (outer-totalistic), so I guess there is one answer of sorts.
confocaloid wrote: December 6th, 2024, 9:14 pmHow about CA on the hexagonal tiling, or on the triangular tiling? How about multistate CA? How about higher-range neighbourhoods? All of those can be isotropic, and optionally outer-totalistic.)
I would presume that the tiling would also be specified in the name. Catagolue is probably the best reference to see what fits in each category, since it categorizes and lists OCA. As a matter of fact, Catagolue is likely the better source of at least some of the information listed here.
confocaloid wrote: December 6th, 2024, 9:14 pm I'm not entirely sure that list is a good idea in the first place. There are no objective criteria for inclusion. It is impossible to list all isotropic CA. Almost certainly people will continue to disagree on what to include and what to exclude, unless/until this list goes away from the main namespace (and possibly becomes someone's userspace page).
I agree that there is no objectivity for what is and isn't to be included, but one thing that I guess the page could be rearranged to accommodate would be to just serve as a directory to only those rules with their own pages already on the wiki/other sites (or maybe just to link forums related to general topics covered by the category). That list is easily quantifiable and quite short compared to all of the rules that exist under all isotropic non-totalistic ca.
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by dvgrn »

WhiteHawk wrote: December 6th, 2024, 6:19 pm
confocaloid wrote: December 5th, 2024, 5:21 pm Many of relatively recent additions of "In other rules"-type sections to many main-namespace pages go against LW:NB (both in the added content not being notable enough to be added to those pages, and in many of the additions clearly going against the rule of not documenting one's own discoveries).
Fixed...
@WhiteHawk, can you clarify what was fixed, or what you're doing differently after recent feedback on your "In other rules" additions?

hotdogPi seems to share confocaloid's concern about some recent "In other rules" additions, and I have a lot of the same worries. A little bit of "in other rules" detail about really common oscillators and still lifes and active objects seems like a nice thing to have -- but it's definitely possible to overdo it. In fact, it's very very easy to overdo it.

Example: you recently added an "In other rules" section to the "Beluchenko's p40" article, and hotdotPi reverted it. Looks like confocaloid mentioned back in August that this kind of thing isn't really notable.

If we start mentioning every way we would have to modify every Conway's Life oscillator if the rules are changed slightly... then almost every oscillator page's "In other rules" section will end up being much longer than the Conway's Life part. The LifeWiki main namespace is mostly reserved for information specific to Conway's Life. The exceptions pretty much prove the rule, so it's a bit worrisome when it starts looking like the exceptions are going to become the rule.
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by WhiteHawk »

dvgrn wrote: December 7th, 2024, 8:37 am @WhiteHawk, can you clarify what was fixed, or what you're doing differently after recent feedback on your "In other rules" additions?
I removed everything I added, except PiLife (B37e/S23) after adding B34c/S23, B34c/S234c, and B3/S234z accounts

I will stick to minor edits and do fewer edits from now on.
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by WhiteHawk »

Doublepost, but it's important.

Turns out that only some of HoneyLife's guns can be uncapped for 6 barrels. The example in the wiki cannot, as two of the gliders would collide with the ones being shunted around for cleanup. So the original language used is incorrect, though there are stabilizations with different timing that can have six barrels.

Code: Select all

x = 322, y = 115, rule = B38/S238
241b2o$241bobo$243bo4b2o$62b2o175b4ob2o2bo2bo$62bobo174bo2bobobobob2o
$64bo4b2o171bobobobo$60b4ob2o2bo2bo170b2obobo$35bo24bo2bobobobob2o174b
o$35b3o25bobobobo$38bo25b2obobo163b2o$37bo30bo165bo7b2o38bo$234bobo5b
2o38b3o16b2o$54b2o179b2o48bo14bobo$55bo7b2o38bo180b2o13bo$55bobo5b2o38b
3o16b2o174bob2o3bo$56b2o48bo14bobo165bo8bobo5bo$105b2o13bo167bobo6b2o
b3o3bo$119bob2o3bo161bo2bo4bo2bob2o2bo$110bo8bobo5bo161b2o6b3o$109bob
o6b2ob3o3bo117b2o49bo2bob2o2bo$109bo2bo4bo2bob2o2bo118bo51b2ob3o3bo$11b
o98b2o6b3o125b3o49bobo5bo$11b3o52b2o49bo2bob2o2bo121bo49bob2o3bo$14bo
51bo51b2ob3o3bo68bo102bo$13bo53b3o49bobo5bo67b2o103bobo$69bo49bob2o3b
o68bobo66b2o35b2o$17bo102bo143b3o$16b2o103bobo139bo2bo$16bobo66b2o35b
2o138b2obo$85b3o174bo$84bo2bo169bobo2bo2bo$83b2obo173bo2bobob3o$83bo170b
o5bo5bo2bo$78bobo2bo2bo167bo5bo5bo2b2o$81bo2bobob3o162bo4b2o9bo$75bo5b
o5bo2bo138b2o23b5o6bo3bo50b2o$75bo5bo5bo2b2o138bo22b4obo6bo2bo51bo$74b
o4b2o9bo139bobo16b2o6bo2bo5b2o50bobo$50b2o23b5o6bo3bo50b2o88b2o15bo3b
o5bobo57b2o$51bo22b4obo6bo2bo51bo109bo7bo$51bobo16b2o6bo2bo5b2o50bobo
113bo$52b2o15bo3bo5bobo57b2o106bo2bo2b2o59b2o$72bo7bo166bo2bo2bobo57b
o2bo$76bo178bo57bobo$68bo2bo2b2o59b2o112b2ob2obo58bo$68bo2bo2bobo57bo
2bo112bob3o$76bo57bobo115bo$70b2ob2obo58bo114b2o$71bob3o176bo$73bo176b
2o60b3o$71b2o238bobobo$73bo235b3o3b3o$71b2o60b3o48b2o3b2o117bo4bo4bo$
132bobobo47b2o3b2o20b2o94bobo7bobo$130b3o3b3o73bo93bo2bo7bo2bo$5b2o3b
2o117bo4bo4bo72bobo71b2o18b2o2b3ob3o2b2o$5b2o3b2o20b2o94bobo7bobo39b2o
2b3ob3o2b2o18bo72bobo$33bo93bo2bo7bo2bo38bo2bo7bo2bo93bo$33bobo71b2o18b
2o2b3ob3o2b2o39bobo7bobo94b2o20b2o3b2o$b2o2b3ob3o2b2o18b2o71bobo72bo4b
o4bo55b3o59b2o3b2o$bo2bo7bo2bo93bo73b3o3b3o58bo$2bobo7bobo94b2o20b2o3b
2o47bobobo59b3o$3bo4bo4bo55b3o59b2o3b2o48b3o$4b3o3b3o58bo$6bobobo59b3o
$7b3o2$186bo$185bobo$184bo2bo$7bo177b2o$6bobo$5bo2bo$6b2o173b2o85b2o$
180bobo85bobo$180bo89bo$2b2o85b2o88b2o89b2o4bobo$bobo85bobo184b2o$bo89b
o185bo$2o89b2o4bobo$97b2o$98bo4$205b2o$198b2o4b2o$198bobo5bo$26b2o173b
o$19b2o4b2o168bo3b2obo49bo$19bobo5bo166bo5bobo49b3o$22bo171bo3b3ob2o51b
o$16bo3b2obo49bo121bo2b2obo2bo49b2o$15bo5bobo49b3o125b3o6b2o$15bo3b3o
b2o51bo118bo2b2obo2bo4bo2bo$16bo2b2obo2bo49b2o117bo3b3ob2o6bobo$22b3o
6b2o161bo5bobo8bo$16bo2b2obo2bo4bo2bo161bo3b2obo$15bo3b3ob2o6bobo167b
o13b2o$15bo5bobo8bo165bobo14bo48b2o$16bo3b2obo174b2o16b3o38b2o5bobo$22b
o13b2o180bo38b2o7bo$19bobo14bo48b2o179b2o$19b2o16b3o38b2o5bobo$39bo38b
2o7bo165bo30bo$87b2o163bobob2o25bo$252bobobobo25b3o$74bo30bo143b2obob
obobo2bo24bo$73bobob2o25bo144bo2bo2b2ob4o$73bobobobo25b3o143b2o4bo$70b
2obobobobo2bo24bo149bobo$70bo2bo2b2ob4o175b2o$72b2o4bo$78bobo$79b2o!
EDIT: the list on Oscillators needs revision, as several pieces of information are missing from the first discovered columns
Currently working to improve Life's guns and work on updating SKOPs and Isotropic rules most similar to B3/S23 to Life standards. Will get software to begin searches eventually.

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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by confocaloid »

https://conwaylife.com/w/index.php?titl ... did=158038
Categories shouldn't be blank. In most cases there needs to be a description and parent categories.
In this case, check the source code of other categories of the same kind like Category:Oscillators with heat 76, to see how those should be filled.

https://conwaylife.com/w/index.php?titl ... did=156552
The edit incorrectly replaced a footnote that was used in another place, breaking that footnote. The removed footnote needs to be restored.
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by confocaloid »

The edit https://conwaylife.com/w/index.php?titl ... did=143305 violates LW:NB: "To prevent overenthusiastic edits and conflicts of interest, a commonly accepted rule is that the discoverer of a pattern, inventor of new terminology, writer of a program, etc., etc., should not be the one to document that pattern, term, or program on the LifeWiki."

EDIT by dvgrn: The edit summary was "came up with a new name LOL". I undid this change.
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by confocaloid »

Crossposting a question
confocaloid wrote: February 9th, 2025, 8:31 pm
hotcrystal0 wrote: February 9th, 2025, 7:58 pm Here, I created the custom rule: Rule:LSStories
So what people are supposed to do with it now? How this could be useful for some ontopic Life/CA exploration of interest to the community now and in future?

Sandbox-only stuff shouldn't go to the wiki. The sandbox is already a problem in itself. Cluttering the wiki with content that only makes sense for Sandbox activity would be a new level of problematic. See also viewtopic.php?p=172453#p172453
EDIT by dvgrn: I've reviewed this item. hotcrystal0 is working on some custom variants of the LifeSuper rule for various purposes. Hopefully the question can get answered in the original thread, and possibly with comments added to the header of the "LSSuper" to explain the new states better. The "(functionality TBA)" notes make it clear that this rule is a work in progress, not in final form yet.

It would be nice to get it into final form sooner rather than later. The LifeWiki Rules area is more appropriate for rule definitions that are not constantly changing. However, it doesn't seem like there's any harm in giving "LSStories" a little time to stabilize, without anyone having to worry too much about it.
127:1 B3/S234c User:Confocal/R (isotropic CA, incomplete)
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by confocaloid »

Raising the same issue on two or more talk pages, without providing any links to earlier relevant discussion or otherwise mentioning existence of previous relevant discussion.
Quoting from WP:FORUMSHOP: "... Where multiple issues do exist, then the raising of the individual issues on the correct pages may be reasonable, but in that case, it is normally best to give links to show where else you have raised the question."
Profanity in edit summary; forum rule 2b.
127:1 B3/S234c User:Confocal/R (isotropic CA, incomplete)
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by confocaloid »

Undiscussed removal of information from LifeWiki:Game of Life Status page
https://conwaylife.com/w/index.php?titl ... did=157809
Removal of the table listing links to oscillators of different periods, and removal of historical information about most recent discoveries.

I think the information is useful and the removal should be reverted. Also compare with https://entropymine.com/jason/life/status.html
127:1 B3/S234c User:Confocal/R (isotropic CA, incomplete)
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My silence does not imply agreement, nor indifference. If I disagreed with something in the past, then please do not construe my silence as something that could change that.
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by WhiteHawk »

confocaloid wrote: March 7th, 2025, 12:37 pm Undiscussed removal of information from LifeWiki:Game of Life Status page
https://conwaylife.com/w/index.php?titl ... did=157809
Removal of the table listing links to oscillators of different periods, and removal of historical information about most recent discoveries.

I think the information is useful and the removal should be reverted. Also compare with https://entropymine.com/jason/life/status.html
Added back, with note. May need better wording than what I put.

Also added redirect to wiki for this page since it doesn't come up easily in searches
Currently working to improve Life's guns and work on updating SKOPs and Isotropic rules most similar to B3/S23 to Life standards. Will get software to begin searches eventually.

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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by Chris857 »

https://conwaylife.com/w/index.php?titl ... did=138666
https://conwaylife.com/w/index.php?titl ... did=135444

These two edits make use of the {{disambig}} template, but results in text like "Long bookends may refer to: Long bookends may refer to one of the five still lifes..." This is very clunky and does not flow well. At a quick glance, other pages using the template have a bulleted list immediately after where the things being disambiguated aren't very similar to each other unlike in this case where we have longer and shared wording, and especially for long bookends it would seem silly to have a single bullet point after the template.
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Re: Reviewing Special:RecentChanges

Post by confocaloid »

https://conwaylife.com/w/index.php?titl ... did=130418
The recent edit lacks any edit summary/explanation.
As far as I know there are no hard-and-fast guidelines for such choices, but the situation with such back-and-forth changes is problematic.

For the record, I would prefer to revert back to the 14-bit catalyst for reasons mentioned in viewtopic.php?p=152467#p152467 while keeping the change in the glider's initial position.

New version of the file:

Code: Select all

#C https://conwaylife.com/w/index.php?title=RLE:P822hdreflector&oldid=159746
x = 19, y = 20, rule = B3/S23
14b2o$bo12bo$2bo9bobo$3o9b2o4$11b2o$11b2o3b2o$15bo2bo2$14bo$b2o11bo2b
o$bo5b2o3b2ob2o$2b3o2b2o3b3o$4bo8bo$2b2o$2bo$3bo8b2o$2b2o8b2o!
Previous version of the file:

Code: Select all

#C https://conwaylife.com/w/index.php?title=RLE:P822hdreflector&oldid=130418
x = 19, y = 20, rule = B3/S23
14b2o$14bo$obo9bobo$b2o9b2o$bo3$11b2o$11b2o3b2o$15bo2bo2$14bo$b2o11bo
2bo$bo5b2o3b2ob2o$2b3o2b2o3b3o$4bo8bo$2b2o$2bo$obo9b2o$2o10b2o!
Earlier version before that:

Code: Select all

#C https://conwaylife.com/w/index.php?title=RLE:P822hdreflector&oldid=113632
x = 19, y = 20, rule = B3/S23
14b2o$14bo$obo9bobo$b2o9b2o$bo3$11b2o$11b2o3b2o$15bo2bo2$14bo$b2o11bo
2bo$bo5b2o3b2ob2o$2b3o2b2o3b3o$4bo8bo$2b2o$2bo$3bo8b2o$2b2o8b2o!
127:1 B3/S234c User:Confocal/R (isotropic CA, incomplete)
Unlikely events happen.
My silence does not imply agreement, nor indifference. If I disagreed with something in the past, then please do not construe my silence as something that could change that.
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