LifeWiki:LifeWiki is not Wikipedia
- "LW:WIKIPEDIA" and "LW:WP" redirect here.
Although LifeWiki is a wiki that anyone can edit much like Wikipedia, there are some important differences to note. Because the focus of LifeWiki is so specialized, it has different notability requirements and layout guidelines. Indeed, if it weren't different from Wikipedia then there wouldn't be much point in having a separate site.
Notability
- Main article: LifeWiki:Notability
On Wikipedia, a topic warrants its own article if it has had independent coverage in secondary or tertiary sources. Because of the scarcity of information about Conway's Game of Life and related cellular automata, such a policy at LifeWiki would result in precious few pages existing. Thus, the notability guidelines are considerably less strict here, though it's still important to keep the LifeWiki definition of notability in mind. Please see the Notability article linked above for details.
Original research
On Wikipedia, there is a strict policy against original research that says it does not include any "unpublished facts, arguments, speculation, and ideas". In order to encourage new contributions from LifeWiki members and expansion of general knowledge of cellular automata, this policy is slightly more lax here. In particular, if an editor has done research or calculated something relevant to a LifeWiki topic that has not been published elsewhere (and it is notable), they should add it to LifeWiki, provided it is verifiable (e.g. if you add someone's newly discovered pattern and claim that it is a 3c/26 spaceship, it is easy to verify that it is or is not a 3c/26 spaceship).
Notability guidelines suggest that, wherever possible, a new pattern should not be added to LifeWiki by the discoverer of the pattern. If a discovery is sufficiently notable, then sooner or later someone else will add it. This rule is certainly not perfect, but it has been enormously useful in preventing a lot of non-notable material from being added over the years by enthusiastic newcomers.
How LifeWiki is like Wikipedia
Even though some of the official policies of Wikipedia don't work at LifeWiki, many of the general guidelines carry over just fine. Users should assume good faith, be bold, avoid conflicts of interest, and so on. In general, if there is not a policy or guideline that covers a particular situation at LifeWiki, then the corresponding Wikipedia policy or guideline should be used.
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