ConwayLife.com

Trying to find a thread to discuss naming unnamed patterns, my first intuition was to look in the Patterns forum, and try to spot a thread following the "Thread For Your ..." pattern.

None came up so created this one. However, there is an old thread with a similar intent: Project Alias
But two problems with it:
- it's not in Patterns
- title too obscure: cannot grep for "name" or "naming"

Probably renaming Project Alias and moving it in Patterns is the best option?


If not, here's the pattern that might trigger some clever naming from your creative juices:
The newly discovered 230P8 Oscillator has a generation (#6 in the wiki) in which you can see two kitty cat heads.
It is more obvious when the pattern is rotated 90 degrees, as in the thumbnail image of the 230P8 Oscillator video.

I'd rather call it champion. There is a very obvious C in the middle of the oscillator; in the same phases it appears, the HWSS spark on the C's left looks like a trophy. That name also has 8 letters – the oscillator's period.

12P2 sorely needs a name.

Hdjensofjfnen wrote:12P2 sorely needs a name.

Symmetric Fox?

Squashed phoenix.

12P2 kinda looks like a hexagon, so why not something like a pun

30P5H2V0 needs a name. Suggestions?
Also 25P3H1V0.1, 58P5H1V1, etc.
In particular, I suggest “picnic” for 60P5H2V0, because it moves a table. The second smallest c/4d also needs a name. Maybe crayfish, because it’s a decapod?

Hdjensofjfnen wrote:12P2 sorely needs a name.

Dab?
The motion looks like it

Moosey wrote:58P5H1V1, etc.

Looks like two hearts flying:
Flying hearts?
Two hearts?
Cupid's hearts?

BZH314 wrote:

Moosey wrote:58P5H1V1, etc.

Looks like two hearts flying:
Flying hearts?
Two hearts?
Cupid's hearts?

Lovebugs?

BZH314 wrote:... dab maybe? ...

Please no

I've always thought that 58P5H1V1 looks like a frowning face with large eyes looking down at something.
Also I've always called 30P5H2V0 "Joseph" for whatever reason.

Saka wrote:I've always thought that 58P5H1V1 looks like a frowning face with large eyes looking down at something

It does resemble that, too. Unhappy Hearts?

I picked some unnamed objects from the wiki:
117P9H3V0: Large Dart
119P4H1V0: Split Dragon
233P3H1V0: Flathead
274P6H1V0: Double-Headed Internal Picnic
30P4H2V0.4: Asymmetric Socks
339P7H1V0: Hivenblinker
54P3H1V0: Clusterblob/Filled Sock/Bag
55P9H3V0: Something to do with a ship with large fire at the back
56P6H1V0: Resembles a derpy face

Saka wrote:I picked some unnamed objects from the wiki:
117P9H3V0: Large Dart
119P4H1V0: Split Dragon
233P3H1V0: Flathead
274P6H1V0: Double-Headed Internal Picnic
30P4H2V0.4: Asymmetric Socks
339P7H1V0: Hivenblinker
54P3H1V0: Clusterblob/Filled Sock/Bag
55P9H3V0: Something to do with a ship with large fire at the back
56P6H1V0: Resembles a derpy face

I agree with all except the last two.
55P9H3V0 is a squid
56P6H1V0 is a blobfish.
EDIT:
114P6H1V0 needs to be called bulldozer already, given that that’s already a proposed name that makes sense.
31P8H4V0 should be “Traffic blockship” or something

114P6H1V0 (or bulldozer) is an unnamed c/6 orthogonal spaceship...
?!

Moosey wrote: I agree with all except the last two.

You agree with Double-Headed Internal Picnic? Wow!
60P3H1V0.3: Long [25P3H1V0.1 future name]
64P2H1V0: Octopusface
67P5H1V1: Broken/Half Enterprise
70P5H2V0: Tesla (The ship has a sort of "Spark Coil" in the middle)
77P4H1V0.1: Symmetric King (The front sort of resembles a crown)
74P8H2V0: Glide-Symmetric King
77P6H1V1: Flying Table

Bonus "Joke":
77P77: Topaz

Saka wrote:

Moosey wrote: I agree with all except the last two.

You agree with Double-Headed Internal Picnic? Wow!
60P3H1V0.3: Long [25P3H1V0.1 future name]
64P2H1V0: Octopusface
67P5H1V1: Broken/Half Enterprise
70P5H2V0: Tesla (The ship has a sort of "Spark Coil" in the middle)
77P4H1V0.1: Symmetric King (The front sort of resembles a crown)
74P8H2V0: Glide-Symmetric King
77P6H1V1: Flying Table

Bonus "Joke":
77P77: Topaz

Double headed internal picnic: I suppose it’s super absurd, but so is dueling banjos. That was one that I considered a while longer but could not think of a name for anyways.
1) Yeah, okay.
2) Sure
3)Diagonal Boulder/Tuff, because it looks sort of like something that came from a volcano
4) Sure
5,6) Good, I like those
7) Perhaps ironing board, so that nobody starts referring to it as table, because then everything would be confused
Joke) If 77topaz is okay with that, I don’t see why not.

Maybe it's time to put my oar in on this. I have no objection to any of these names, of course, as long as they stay in threads like this one or the previous Project Alias thread, and/or actually start getting commonly used to describe these objects.

Speaking only for myself, unless other folks want to chime in and agree*: if any of this terminology jumps directly into the LifeWiki the way bulldozer did, I'm going to be continually tempted to take it right back out again. This no doubt comes from my long and painful association with both the Life Lexicon and the LifeWiki, so I hope everyone will forgive me for sticking close to The Rules on this, even when I kinda partly made up The Rules myself.

Very Low Signal to Noise Ratio
The problem is that terminology like "bulldozer" pretty much always ends up looking like clutter instead of real information, either on the LifeWiki or in the Life Lexicon. Check out "angry egg", for example. Where did that come from? Who has ever used it, or will ever use it, to refer to a teardrop with claw (the name of that object in Mark Niemiec's database)? The answer turns out to be that muzik really liked the alternative name at one point and couldn't resist adding it.

Like the Life Lexicon, the LifeWiki makes it a priority to document common usage so that people can look up Life-related words that other people are using, to find out what in Conway's name they're talking about. As long as a word like "bulldozer" is confined to a "Let's Name Lots of Patterns" thread here on the forums, nobody will ever have any need to look it up, so in my not-so-humble opinion it absolutely definitely doesn't belong on the LifeWiki yet.

Exceptions (that prove the rule)
Of course that changes as soon as somebody builds a high-period rake or a sawtooth pattern or anything that includes bulldozers, and describes them as "bulldozers". Maybe the introductory post says "... with bulldozers to clean up the debris", or "found a new way for a bulldozer to reflect a glider", or "bulldozers can catalyze a Herschel in passing" or whatever. Or maybe a pattern ends up in a pattern collection under the name "BulldozerPushingSomePushalongsAlong.rle". Then the LifeWiki ought to have an answer to the question, "Huh? What's a bulldozer?" -- but not before then!

It's fine to have threads like this as a collection point for good terminology, to remind people to get these names into common usage. But if history is any guide (and it is!) about 99% of these attempts to forcibly create names for things will ultimately fail to catch on... which means that for every actually helpful edit along these lines, future LifeWiki editors will be left to clean up a pile of ninety-nine totally mysterious angry eggs.

* they're welcome to disagree, too, but if they do then I'm _still_ speaking only for myself...

dvgrn wrote:Maybe it's time to put my oar in on this. I have no objection to any of these names, of course, as long as they stay in threads like this one or the previous Project Alias thread, and/or actually start getting commonly used to describe these objects.

Speaking only for myself, unless other folks want to chime in and agree*: if any of this terminology jumps directly into the LifeWiki the way bulldozer did, I'm going to be continually tempted to take it right back out again. This no doubt comes from my long and painful association with both the Life Lexicon and the LifeWiki, so I hope everyone will forgive me for sticking close to The Rules on this, even when I kinda partly made up The Rules myself.
...

Thank you for the thoughtful post. However, this basically means that if you find a use for the pattern in question, you can give it a name, or at least an unofficial one.
Also, 114P6H1V0 looks sort of like a giraffe lying on the ground, though a name like “crawling giraffe” is even less likely to be used by 114P6H1V0 than angry egg is to be used for teardrop with claw.
Just saw saka’s edit to the c/5 diagonal spaceship (whatever it’s called) post:
Yeah, sometimes I have a sarcastic Idea to call a spaceship by a generic name.
30P5H2V0 for some reason makes me think of pocket watches; perhaps pocketwatch?
EDiT:
This phase in particular makes me think of pocketwatches:

Moosey wrote:Double headed internal picnic: I suppose it’s super absurd, but so is dueling banjos. That was one that I considered a while longer but could not think of a name for anyways.

That name is not actually as ridiculous as it seems, because it's a reference to the title of a song.

77topaz wrote:

Moosey wrote:Double headed internal picnic: I suppose it’s super absurd, but so is dueling banjos. That was one that I considered a while longer but could not think of a name for anyways.

That name is not actually as ridiculous as it seems, because it's a reference to the title of a song.

Why that song?

27P4H1V1 (I hope that’s what it’s called) needs a name and a wiki page, or at least deserves a part of the crab page.
But definitely needs a name. I would personally call it Crayfish, Mantis shrimp, Krill, really any other crustacean, or Barc.

58P5H1V1: Two of hearts
77P77: Topaz
12P2: Almosphoenix

25P3H1V0.1 needs a name incredibly badly. I feel it should be called "flat bug" or something.
Anybody else got suggestions?

Moosey wrote:25P3H1V0.1 needs a name incredibly badly. I feel it should be called "flat bug" or something.
Anybody else got suggestions?

I've always referred to it as the UFO or "flying saucer"