User talk:Muzik

Caterpillar_macrocell_part_1 etc.

May I ask you what were you doing there? Codeholic (talk) 19:41, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

I was using wiki pages to transfer the .mc code for the caterpillar from computer to iPad. None of the conventional methods worked. AwesoMan3000 (talk) 21:09, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

Have you heard of Dropbox maybe? LifeWiki is not your own file storage. Codeholic (talk) 21:25, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

That wouldn't work. For some reason, on iOS, you can't select very large .rle or .mc files. AwesoMan3000 (talk) 21:44, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

Cite web

Howdy -- since you indicated in an edit comment you didn't know how to use {{cite web}}, I thought I'd give you a quick intro. It's actually really easy; instead of putting a bare URL inside <ref> tags, use the following, and fill in the correct parameters:

{{cite web|url=http://example.com|title=Page title|author=Author's name|date=January 1, 1970|accessdate=Today's date}}

There's more parameters, but these are the important ones. Alternatively, you can see how it's being used e.g. here. Apple Bottom (talk) 23:27, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

General rule of thumb

Do not write about your own contributions in the wiki. If they're significant, people will mention it (sooner or later). I'd been waiting for a year (no, actually, I hadn't :)) before Dave created an article about weekender distaff. Be patient. Codeholic (talk) 08:09, 8 March 2016 (UTC)

• By "my contributions", do you mean writing stuff in the edit summary, or noting the process of naming the copperhead? AwesoMan3000 (talk) 08:38, 8 March 2016 (UTC)
  • I haven't understood what you meant by "writing stuff in the edit summary", but edit summary is generally not a problem, as it is meta. I meant process of naming the copperhead in particular, but it also includes (but is not limited to) patterns you found. Codeholic (talk) 10:47, 8 March 2016 (UTC)
    • Don't remember writing about any of my discoveries (except possibly Honey factory, which was probably known around the time of the pentadecathlon anyway), so unless you were talking about the c/10 blinker fuse I don't remember writing anything about patterns I found? - AwesoMan3000 (talk) 11:23, 8 March 2016 (UTC)
      • I mentioned writing articles about one's own patterns just preventively. You know, 50% of new LifeWiki contributors start with creating articles about still lifes, methuselahs or whatever patterns they "discovered". It's good that you're not susceptible to this flaw. Codeholic (talk) 22:17, 8 March 2016 (UTC)
    • P.S. When I tried to post this, it said my edit had new external links and gave me the verification thing. I don't see any external links here.
      • Hmm, me neither. Codeholic (talk) 22:17, 8 March 2016 (UTC)
        • Unless it was referring to the link in the section before this, which still makes next to no sense since I was still only editing this section when the message appeared. AwesoMan3000 (talk) 22:18, 8 March 2016 (UTC)

LifeWiki:Tiki bar

Howdy! The LifeWiki's lacked a central discussion page so far, so I've gone ahead and created the LifeWiki:Tiki bar as a friendly place where the community can get together to discuss things in a relaxed atmosphere. You're cordially invited to join in!

The first discussion I started is on how to best integrate the LifeViewer applet (LV:Viewer) that is now available on the LifeWiki thanks to User:Nathaniel's efforts.

See you at the bar! Apple Bottom (talk) 11:21, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

RLE snippets

I appreciate that you're trying to help by adding RLE snippets, but could you exercise a bit more diligence? In particular:

1. The title of the page containing the snippet needs to match the pname= parameter from the pattern's infobox. For example, the RLE snippet for the LWSS lives at RLE:lwss, not RLE:lightweight spaceship, which does precisely nothing.
   1. (Just for the future and because I know it'll eventually come up, capitalization matters, too, so it really has to be RLE:lwss and not e.g. RLE:Lwss.)
2. Once a pattern has an RLE snippet, it usually also needs a viewerconfig= parameter in its infobox so the RLE will be played correctly. This is especially important for spaceships, which will otherwise quickly move off-screen.
3. The RLE code needs to be correct. The Coe ship's, for instance, wasn't.

Thanks! Apple Bottom (talk) 09:35, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

thanks. Being as stupid as I am I was kind of wondering what names I should have used.

Also, I'm still having a lot of trouble figuring out the config... - AwesoMan3000 (talk) 09:37, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

The configuration is a bit... obaque, I'll say, yes. The most important parameters you need to know (and likely want to specify) are GPS (generations per second) for both oscillators and spaceships; and TRACK (track a pattern) for spaceships. The latter takes three parameters: the number of generations to track, and the total X and Y offsets by which the pattern moves.

As for other parameters, I've found it's generally best to copy the viewerconfig= parameter from another page and tweak them until the embedded viewer looks good.

BTW, for pages that already have downloadable RLE files it's probably best to make the on-wiki RLE snippet match what's in those files. At the very least it'll make it easier to check that the on-wiki RLE is indeed correct - otherwise it may well be, but it won't be obvious. ;) Apple Bottom (talk) 09:56, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

Been doing the copying for the Cordership pages. - AwesoMan3000 (talk) 09:57, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

Cool. BTW, maybe it would be best if you tried to get a page working right before starting work on the next -- one step at a time! There's no rush, after all, and "good" beats "fast".

Oh, and a few more notes. First, RLE snippets can contain newlines, you don't need to edit those out. ;) And second, the embedded viewer has so far only been added for oscillators and spaceships, not e.g. guns, so there's no use (yet) in adding snippets for those. Apple Bottom (talk) 10:06, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

Infobox parameters

Howdy! I thought I'd give you a quick heads-up re: infobox parameters. :) Parameters such as rle= or animated= should only be specified if an RLE file, animated image etc. actually exists. If they are specified, it doesn't matter what their value is -- even "false" is interpreted as "this exists", so e.g. rle=false will not do what one would think.

All the best! Apple Bottom (talk) 10:59, 24 June 2016 (UTC)

I tried taking away the RLE line, but then the viewer would fail to appear.

Also, would rle=0 also be seen as yes? - AwesoMan3000 (talk) 11:01, 24 June 2016 (UTC)

Hmm, without having taken another look at the pattern infobox template I'm 99.44% sure you need to pass nofile=1 (or =anything, really) if there's no downloadable files, or the infobox will not display either an image or the viewer. Don't ask me why it's done this way; I suspect it's a relic from the days where those editing on here were largely just those who also had the ability to upload RLE/... files.

And I'm fairly sure it would be seen as that, yes.

P.S. -- thanks for contributing and writing articles on new rules and things, BTW. ;) Apple Bottom (talk) 11:30, 24 June 2016 (UTC)

Infoboxes for non-Life patterns

Also, when you're putting articles on patterns in non-standard rules on subpages of your user page, I'm not sure it's a good idea to use the usual templates such as Template:Spaceship. The reason is that these populate categories such as Category:Spaceships with period 4 etc., and the consensus at the LifeWiki:Tiki bar was that these should not contain patterns that don't actually work in Conway Life. You may want to rekindle that debate, or start a new one. Apple Bottom (talk) 11:54, 24 June 2016 (UTC)

Was worried about that. Isn't there a way to cancel out the automatic addition of categories?

or maybe someone could make a copy of the infobox that does not automatically add any categories? - AwesoMan3000 (talk) 12:43, 24 June 2016 (UTC)

Those could both be made to work, yes. I'm not a big fan of changing the standard templates just so they can support patterns that aren't supposed to go into the main namespace in the first place, but you could certainly copy and modify them, ideally into your own userspace, say User:AwesoMan3000/Spaceship. Template transclusion works just the same no matter whether the transcluded page is in the Template: namespace or not, though if it isn't you have to explicitely specify the namespace. I've set up an example template for spaceships for you. Apple Bottom (talk) 12:55, 24 June 2016 (UTC)

MWSS LifeViewer

The viewer's working fine; there must be a problem on your side. Have you tried clearing your browser cache to make sure you have the latest LifeViewer Javascript?

If the problem persists, please raise the issue at the Tiki bar so it can be fixed rather than covered up. Correct viewerconfig is important. Thanks. Apple Bottom (talk) 15:18, 27 June 2016 (UTC)

Images

Howdy, a few tips re: images:

1. Use black-on-white, not Golly's default.
2. Use PNG, not JPEG, for still images.
3. Include a description of some sort when uploading images.
4. Ideally, upload images in the size that they're supposed to be used in; don't expect that MediaWiki's image scaling will produce good results.

Apple Bottom (talk) 10:19, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

You can't upload images as png from an iPad after you crop them. - AwesoMan3000 (talk) 12:49, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

In that case iPads may not be suitable for images altogether. Apple Bottom (talk) 21:03, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

Viewerconfig

When you add RLE snippets for oscillators etc., please add a viewerconfig line to the pattern's infobox as well. Apple Bottom (talk) 21:01, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

How to stop the infobox from reading RLE: pages

In reply to your edit summary on RLE:parallelhbk in which you asked:

So how do I stop the infobox from trying to read these?

You don't. The whole point of the RLE: pages is that they're read by the infobox's Lifeviewer plugin and used to display the pattern. Apple Bottom (talk) 10:42, 3 July 2016 (UTC)

Pattern parameters

Howdy, please be careful that you get the vital parameters right when adding new patterns. Readers WILL rely on these figures being correct, but for instance, Two cis griddles with two tubs and Two trans griddles with two tubs both had the wrong heat and volatility.

The wiki doesn't have enough editors for double-checking to be viable; the only reason I caught these two is because the template rounds down heat and would thus have put them in Category:Oscillators with heat 0. (If you think about it for a moment, BTW, it's obvious that no oscillator can have heat strictly less than 1.)

So please, when adding new patterns, try and make 100% sure that these parameters are correct. When in doubt use a tool like Jason's Oscillizer to determine them. Apple Bottom (talk) 11:33, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

Editing infobox templates

You have made some edits to infobox templates recently, and I want to give a few comments before you make any more.

First, don't edit any of the current templates without testing your edits first. To test your edits, I suggest creating a test template under your namespace. For example, User:AwesoMan3000/Template:test. To use this template on a page, write {{User:AwesoMan3000/Template:test|...}}.

When you test your template edits, make sure that the template works exactly as it used to, except for whatever added feature you gave it. Your recent edits to the oscillator infobox template added a new line at the top of every page that used the template (which I have now corrected).

If you want to add parameters to the infoboxes, you should discuss them in the tiki bar first. Also, new parameters need to be explained in the "special parameters" section of the template page.
~Sokwe 02:49, 11 August 2016 (UTC)

Images

While I do appreciate that you wrote an article on the pony express, I'd like to ask you to please:

1. Not upload duplicate images unnecessarily, e.g. re-uploading File:Ponyexpress samplesoup gen5000.png as File:Ponyexpress.png.
2. Make sure that images used in infoboxes are not so large as to break the layout of said infoboxes and the articles containing them.
3. Retain authorship and licensing information when (re)uploading images I created or their derivative works.

I've fixed up File:Ponyexpress.png, adding all the necessary information and also uploading a smaller version (resized in Golly), but please: don't make ME do extra work unnecessarily. It's up to YOU (and every other LifeWiki editor) to exercise care, clean up after themselves, and not be sloppy.

Thanks. Apple Bottom (talk) 18:46, 10 September 2016 (UTC)

Article quality

When adding new articles, please make sure that they live up to at least a modest standard of quality. This is, frankly, a trainwreck.

I've mopped up a lot after you in the past, but I have neither the time nor the inclination to keep on doing so. We're all responsible adults here (I sure hope!) looking to keep the LifeWiki a high-quality resource, so please do your share and clean up after yourself.

Apple Bottom (talk) 23:43, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

It's not easy. 14 (nearly 15) is for some reason not considered an adult, I can't produce any decent quality images for articles on mobile (any way to generate these in PC?), and ever since iOS 10 happened Golly has been buggered over and I can't get functional apgcodes. - AwesoMan3000 (talk) 01:02, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

Here are some things you CAN do, then (this is not an exhaustive list).

• Don't upload images if you can't create decent ones. There's nothing wrong with not having any. Alternatively ask someone else to create them, e.g. at the LifeWiki:Tiki bar.
• Add infobox parameters. If you don't know what an oscillator's period, heat etc. is, use Jason's Oscilizer.
• Add a viewerconfig if you're adding a raw RLE snippet for an oscillator, spaceship etc.
• Create missing category pages as necessary/appropriate.
• Proofread for spelling, grammar and style.

It doesn't matter whether you're 14 or 140. Nobody's expecting you to do things you can't do, but please do the things you can indeed do. And if you can't do something well, for whatever reason, please consider not doing it and instead asking someone else who's in a better position to do it. (Again, the Tiki bar is a good place for this, I think.) Apple Bottom (talk) 13:18, 19 February 2017 (UTC)

How do you create your images though? - AwesoMan3000 (talk) 21:07, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

I wrote a script to convert RLE files to images. Apple Bottom (talk) 10:57, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Notability

I ran into your honey factory entry in one of the Pages Needing Attention lists, and it got me worrying. Another example is floodgate. I'm not sure if there are other cases out there, or if this was just a quick experiment with the Constellation category back in January. (?)

At a first glance, I think these two definitions should be removed. The problem with them is that, well, nobody has ever used these terms (as far as I can tell). A good rule of thumb seems to be that if a term hasn't been used multiple times by multiple people other than the term's inventor, in a discussion on the forums or elsewhere, then it shouldn't be cluttering up the LifeWiki... yet!

If it's important enough that a particular term end up in the LifeWiki, then a good way to make that happen is to bring it up in discussions, and get other people interested. The proof that it's actually interesting enough to belong on the LifeWiki is when several people-other-than-you actually use it regularly.

This lets us dodge a whole series of thorny questions about whether the name is appropriate or not, whether someone else could come up with a better name, and so on. If it's in general use, then it's useful to record it. If it's not in general use, maybe it will be in a couple of years, and that's fine -- but that means it should get into the LifeWiki in a couple of years, not now.

...Sound reasonable?

Thanks for all your work on the LifeWiki, by the way! I always feel a little evil when I want to nominate particular articles for deletion, but sometimes it just seems like the best idea. Dvgrn (talk) 18:08, 8 May 2017 (UTC)

Just to chime in -- deletion is much less evil if you move a problematic article to a subpage of the creator's user page instead (and then edit it so it doesn't show up in the usual categories anymore). That way the work that was put in wasn't for naught, but the main namespace remains free of non-notable material. It's the best of both worlds.

Outright deletion is still appropriate for pages that don't belong anywhere on the LifeWiki, of course. -- Apple Bottom (talk) 21:13, 10 May 2017 (UTC)