How do we welcome newcomers without discouraging them?

[hotcrystal0]

I've noticed how many newcomers end up getting discouraged from the community because they've been told that whatever they found isn't "interesting to the community". I know this is just stating the facts, but is there a better way to welcome newcomers? Obviously start by showing the forum rules, but can we do it in a way that doesn't potentially discourage them?

[R2INT]

I think the main issue here is that newcomers are often more interested in the artistic side of Life. Many of the patterns I see from newcomers are posts of interesting evolutionary sequences that result in something interesting/rare patterns. In addition, many of the active forum member are focused on the engineering/construction side of Life, which is way harder for newcomers to grasp. In my opinion, this is a possible reason why newcomers are discouraged.

[b-engine]

We might introduce OCA to newcomers first, since OCA is a very huge rulespace.

However I saw some newcomers that are only interested in Life. For example, Sober ABC, which keeps making patterns that looks "cool" but aren't notable, while refuses to touch OCA.

[hotcrystal0]

Here’s some relevant discussion from the past: A Broader Audience for CA

[b-engine]

Since Nathaniel is very unlikely to change the contents of the phpBB FAQ omnipresent in every forum pages, I think we should create a locked sticky thread titled "Life & OCA FAQ" and it would consist of all the common questions of CGoL and OCA.
This also makes it much easier to edit for moderators.

[dvgrn]

... I think we should create a locked sticky thread titled "Life & OCA FAQ" and it would consist of all the common questions of CGoL and OCA.

Looks like unname4798 has created a thread with that intention, but the question it has collected so far looks to me more like a "basic question" or maybe an "advanced question" than a "Frequently Asked Question".

I moved the thread out of the OCA board into the Help/Support board, since that seemed like the intended target location -- the suggestion mentioned Life as well as OCA.

I'll be happy to make that thread locked and sticky, and maybe edit FAQ contributions into the first post if needed, as soon as a page or so of FAQs have collected in it.

[Sokwe]

I think we should create a locked sticky thread titled "Life & OCA FAQ" and it would consist of all the common questions of CGoL and OCA.

There's no reason for something like that to be exclusively updated by moderators. I propose instead that people use the wiki to construct such guides as tutorials. That way any user on the wiki can modify it.

[dvgrn]

There's no reason for something like that to be exclusively updated by moderators. I propose instead that people use the wiki to construct such guides as tutorials. That way any user on the wiki can modify it.

There is an interesting old Cellular Automata FAQ/Archive article already in LifeWiki, added by DroneBetter two-and-some years ago ... a partial import of a CA FAQ from two-and-some decades ago that was already antiquated then.

The thing is, while the content of the old CA FAQ is thoroughly antediluvian, the organization is quite good. If we want to make a good modern CA FAQ, we could do worse than to start carefully working through the old structure section by section -- not automatically importing any of the content but re-answering from scratch all of the questions asked there, and adding new questions whenever there are obvious ones to add.

(I mean, it would also make good sense to simply import all of the old content, following DroneBetter's pattern. But then the idea would be to leave that historical version in place and start over from the beginning, making a separate up-to-date version of each section.)

It does definitely make sense to me to do this kind of work on the wiki rather than in the forums. We could use the newly repurposed CA FAQ discussion thread to orchestrate the project. It's easier to discuss things here than it is on the wiki, and it's easier to do collaborative editing on the wiki than it is here.

[I6_I6]

I think a lot of newcomers miss reading the forum rules. I noticed that in The Origami Forum, whenever you enter a thread, there's a red box at the top with a link to the forum rules. I think it'd be nice to have something like that here, too, so that nobody misses the forum rules.

[b-engine]

The incident between B468S02357 and NNlk05 is the textbook example of what you shouldn't do: enforcing forum rules in a "rude" way.

EDIT: apparently it's completely unrelated to forum rules as pointed out by the post below, however I can't read through all of them.

[speedydelete]

The incident between B468S02357 and NNlk05 is the textbook example of what you shouldn't do: enforcing forum rules in a "rude" way.

The incident was caused because B468S02357 is under 13, which is a rule of Discord derived from an American law (COPPA). If NNlk05 hadn't reported them, someone else would've.

[NNlk05]

The incident was caused because B468S02357 is under 13, which is a rule of Discord derived from an American law (COPPA). If NNlk05 hadn't reported them, someone else would've.

Yep. I can confirm that is the case. In hindsight, I should been nicer to them. Also, I think they are Russian. Which complicate things because I know nothing about Russian laws.

To make this post a bit more productive, I suggest someone write up an FDA
FAQ that links to relevant links like LV and LifeWiki. I may do it on my blog when I get back, but I’ll appreciate it.

[B468S02357]

I'm from idaho the land of the potatoes not russia
I really wonder where you got that from

[TheWayOfTheCon]

A rather popular YouTuber named Carykh made a video on Conway's Game of Life and some life-like rules, and it mentions this website and Catagolue. So we should expect and prepare for an influx of new users. It wont be that many, but it will still be considerable.

[NNlk05]

We have about 3000 guests currently.

[TheWayOfTheCon]

We have about 3000 guests currently.

Could be a combination of guests and bots. But the smoking gun is that in the past day (or two) since Carykh's video released, 18 new accounts have been created for LifeWiki. We usually get new accounts much slower than that.

[otismo]

i just thoroughly enjoyed watching the video linked to above -

instead of "exploring the rulespace" the creator goes

Exploring the Conway MultiVerse -

good tools for doing that are

http://gol.jct.onl

AND

http://ash.jct.onl

EDIT :

Most users ever online was 13502 on June 26th, 2026, 2:02 am

ALSO - never heard of Yeast - way kewl !

Code: Select all

x = 5, y = 5, rule = B3/S23
2bo$3bo$bo2bo$3o$bo!

Welcome NewComers !

Cheers !

<3

[NNlk05]

On the topic of welcoming newcomers, I have this idea siting on the back of my head for a while;
The root cause of this is that there really isn't any other good websites about CGoL. playgameoflife.com comes to mind... And I hate to admit that I started with it.
The website should have:

• First and foremost, a LifeViewer-enabled pattern viewer to solve the posting screenshots thing.
• Blog posts/FAQ posts about:
  • What is CGoL
  • How do it work?
  • How can I help?
  • I think I found something new, how can I check if its new...
  • ... and where and how do I share it?
  • How do I use {apgsearch/Golly/LV/gfind/...}?
  • Other topics that I cannot think off the top of my head right now.
• Links back to this site, ConwayLife.com with extra content on how do act/post there.
• A good domain name so people can find it
  Something like conwaysgameoflife.somerandomhost.com is bad,
  and conwaysgameof.life is good (last time I checked its not taken)

Say, I think Dave Greene still have that b3s23.life domain laying around (?)
If this is to be realized, it needs to be a community effort. Any one person cannot do this alone.

[TheWayOfTheCon]

On the topic of welcoming newcomers, I have this idea siting on the back of my head for a while;
The root cause of this is that there really isn't any other good websites about CGoL. playgameoflife.com comes to mind... And I hate to admit that I started with it.
The website should have:

• ...
• Blog posts/FAQ posts about:
  • What is CGoL
  • How do it work?
  • How can I help?
  • I think I found something new, how can I check if its new...
  • ... and where and how do I share it?
  • How do I use {apgsearch/Golly/LV/gfind/...}?
  • Other topics that I cannot think off the top of my head right now.
  ...

Say, I think Dave Greene still have that b3s23.life domain laying around (?)
If this is to be realized, it needs to be a community effort. Any one person cannot do this alone.

The Home page of ConwayLife.com has a bit of FAQs, but its pretty bare-bones, so maybe that could be expanded. The whole page itself is kinda boring, so maybe if it was expanded it would get more attention from and be more helpful to newcomers.

[ThePlayzr]

I think an important thing that needs to be added is that when a person makes a new account, the site automatically redirects them to the forum rule page. This is because a lot of newcomers (I was actually one of these ) tend to not actually look at the forum rules until much after joining. This would help with people not following simple rules such as pattern notability and necro-posting, which both make up probably 99% of all newcomer problems. This would also (to my belief) be very easy to implement.
A lot of newcomers are young, many are teens or even tweens, and I don't think an eleven-year-old is going to click on a tiny link to forum rules at the top of the page when they join.
EDIT: building on NNlk05's idea, perhaps we could have a list of 'quests' that they have to do before being able to make posts.
This would include:
- Reading the forum rules.
- Visiting the FAQ: Is this a new discovery? Is this already known? thread.
- And visiting the Help for Newcomers thread.
This would be a lot harder to implement but would help a lot with the newcomer problems.

[Marrow16]

Apologies if some of this sounds a little brutal, but it's intended constructively.

* The thread asks how not to discourage newcomers, but many proposed solutions amount to more rules, greater visibility of rules, or compulsory exposure to rules.
* Several comments implicitly treat newcomers' different interests as a deficiency in their understanding, rather than asking whether those interests might themselves be worthwhile.
* LifeWiki exercises strong notability control over new material while a significant amount of existing material appears poorly maintained, particularly external links (far too many links are broken!).
* A specialist research resource should distinguish “recorded” from “considered important”. Cheap storage and modern search/indexing make exclusion on informational-overload grounds much less compelling than it once was.
* Most importantly, today's definition of “notable” reflects today's knowledge. Filtering observations through that definition risks throwing away precisely the observations that might acquire significance under tomorrow's questions.

On points about "rules", I would consider this... academic research may have methodological rules, but it cannot have rules about what you're permitted to find interesting or what questions you're permitted to ask.

[Marrow16]

To put that more bluntly, "make up your f'ing mind"...

Because “we desperately want new people” and “please learn what we've already decided is worthy of being interested in” are in fairly obvious tension.

[Marrow16]

Nothing, diddley squat. No rebuke or rebuttal, just a resounding silence. A few nudges asking for a little introspection being met with silence looks increasingly like classical ossification.

https://conwaylife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2092

The forum rules repeatedly describe this as an “academic forum”.

So, genuinely: enlighten me.

If this really is an academic forum, where are the reproducibility standards?

[Marrow16]

You explicitly describe this as an “academic forum.”

Fine. I'm prepared to take that assertion seriously.

Please substantiate the claimed academic provenance.

What makes this forum academic, rather than a specialist enthusiast forum?

Where are its standards for reproducibility, evidence and methodology? What review process does it use? How are experimental claims independently verified? How are datasets and experimental conditions expected to be recorded? How are conjecture, observation and established result distinguished?

I'm not asking whether academics participate here, or whether the subject itself is mathematical. Neither makes a forum academic.

You have explicitly asserted academic status. I'm simply asking what substantive standards or processes support that assertion.

[TheWayOfTheCon]

You explicitly describe this as an “academic forum....
What makes this forum academic, rather than a specialist enthusiast forum?

Where are its standards for reproducibility, evidence and methodology? What review process does it use? How are experimental claims independently verified? How are datasets and experimental conditions expected to be recorded? How are conjecture, observation and established result distinguished?

You've got a point. IMO I wouldn't consider this place an "academic forum". A place where formality is expected, sure. But most of us aren't actual researchers putting out studies on this stuff, because at the end of the day cellular automata isn't a very complex subject. It can just be made complex.

But complaining aside, I do think the notion might cause newcomers to see this place at higher-standard then it really is.