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)

Subpage seems fine then, I'll probably be too lazy to actually work on them though, but maybe occasionally. - AwesoMan3000 (talk)

Oscillator volatility

Howdy,

first of all, thanks for the new articles on those smallest period-n oscillators. Second, you seem to be having some trouble with figuring out volatilities, so I thought I'd give you a primer.

It's actually really simple. I presume you're using Oscillizer to analyze these? Using Pseudo-barberpole on rattlesnake as an example, you may have gotten the following results:

The volatility figure you're looking for here is 62.64% (you seem to have gone for the strict volatility instead). There's a twist, though, in that Oscillizer reports volatilities as percentages, while the LifeWiki gives them as fractions.

In other words, a volatility of 62.64% corresponds to 0.6264. And we also round volatilities to two decimal digits, so the correct infobox parameter in this case would be v = 0.63.

I hope that clears things up.

P.S. -- you created a bunch of redirects to a currently non-existent article, Adjustable glider loops. You ARE going to write that now, aren't you? ;)

Apple Bottom (talk) 09:25, 16 June 2017 (UTC)

Further tips and requests

Howdy, some more tips and requests.

1) There's no need to ask admins to delete redirects created after moving a page; MediaWiki has an option to avoid creating them in the first place:

2) When creating articles for patterns that do not have an RLE file uploaded (a proper file, not an on-wiki RLE snippet!), please specify nofile = true in the infobox, NOT rle = true. This will ensure that a) there's no links leading nowhere; and b) the relevant tracking categories are filled in, allowing admins to identify which articles are missing RLE files, and create/upload those files.

3) When using Mark Niemiec's pattern database, why not specify the glider synthesis count for a pattern if he lists it? (E.g. 20 for Merzenich's p64.)

4) Please apply some common sense when naming articles. It should be obvious that "Merzenich's P64 4 blocks hassling 2 beehives and 2 R pentominos" in Mark's database is missing a semicolon, and that "Merzenich's p64" and "4 blocks hassling 2 beehives and 2 R-pentominoes" are really two different names for the same object.

5) As with all other infobox paramters, please make sure the viewerconfig is reasonably correct -- e.g. not looping every 48 generations for a period-64 oscillator.

6) Finally, please add missing categories as necessary (using the right templates, of course). You're already mostly doing this, but there were a few left missing after your latest batch of edits.

As a general principle -- if you're creating/editing pages it's your duty to "clean up after yourself" and make sure that they're in a good shape, that information listed is correct, and so on. The less work others have to do as a result of your edits, the better!

And all this said, thanks for your contributions! Apple Bottom (talk) 21:18, 23 June 2017 (UTC)

That's about all I can think of for now.

1) I am well aware of this, and have used it extensively on other wikis, but it doesn't show up for me. I would use it if it actually showed up, trust me.

5) seems I forgot the looping was still there.

- AwesoMan3000 (talk) 21:37, 23 June 2017 (UTC)

Even more tips

Howdy, and first of all, thanks for all the continuing contributions. A few more requests:

1) Could you please create all new missing categories, at least where category templates to do this are already available? For example, you recently missed Category:Oscillators with 416 cells, Category:Oscillators with 106 cells and Category:Oscillators with heat 127, though you created other categories for the articles appearing in these.

2) Could you please include the header line for RLE snippets in the RLE: namespace? For instance, on RLE:Twinbeesshuttleshasslingblinker, don't just put

17b2o31bo$2o15bobo7b2o10b2o8b2o15b2o$2o17bo7b2o10b2o7b2o16b2o$17b3o29b
2o2b2o4$17b3o29b2o2b2o$2o17bo12b3o13b2o16b2o$2o15bobo29b2o15b2o$17b2o
31bo!

but rather put

x = 68, y = 11, rule = B3/S23
17b2o31bo$2o15bobo7b2o10b2o8b2o15b2o$2o17bo7b2o10b2o7b2o16b2o$17b3o29b
2o2b2o4$17b3o29b2o2b2o$2o17bo12b3o13b2o16b2o$2o15bobo29b2o15b2o$17b2o
31bo!

(This'll make it much easier to create "proper" RLE files and upload them.)

3) Could you please adjust the viewer config for oscillators? In particular, could you make sure that the entire oscillator is shown in the embedded viewer? The viewer applet may get the size wrong if the oscillator is (much) larger in phases other than the one encoded by the RLE.

GPS values are important, too. A period-2 oscillator is best displayed at a different speed than (say) a period-200 oscillator.

"Good" viewer configs are a bit of a black art, but if you fiddle with them a bit you'll quickly get a feeling for them.

4) On the subject of viewerconfigs -- as I said above, please also make sure that when using the LOOP viewer command, the period given is actually correct. When in doubt, leave out the LOOP command, it isn't really needed for oscillators.

5) Finally, please make sure that the RLE snippets you upload are correct (i.e. actually encode the pattern, rather than e.g. a predecessor). I fixed up the snippet for P200 traffic jam, but I don't have the time to check every single RLE snippet. Running an RLE snippet through Oscillizer is a good way of testing it: if Oscillizer complains that it cannot determine the period, chances are that the RLE is not correct.

All in all -- when you're finished with a new entry, it should be in the best state it can be. Nobody's perfect, but please don't leave things half-finished (or even 90% finished!); YOU are responsible for your work! And don't sacrifice quality for the sake of quantity; it's better to write one good entry than two that need clean-up. (There's always another day for more contributions, after all.)

And this said, again, thanks for the contributions, and if you need help or have questions, the Tiki Bar is always serving drinks. -- Apple Bottom (talk) 12:53, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

If you want the articles to be in the best state they can be, would you mind linking the script that lets you generate pattern images? Not trying to be rude or anything, but it would certaintly be a step in the right direction if you want me to create more complete articles.

As for everything else, I'll do what I can. - AwesoMan3000 (talk) 13:17, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

The script's not online anywhere, and isn't in a state where I could release it right now. I'll see what I can do about beating it into shape, but it may take a while, I don't usually have that much spare time to spend on these things. -- Apple Bottom (talk) 13:43, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

apgcode infobox parameter

BTW, good work on adding those missing apgcode= parameters to pattern infoboxes. There's quite a few of these left -- the following categories track articles missing this parameter:

• Category:Oscillators with no apgcode infobox parameter
• Category:Spaceships with no apgcode infobox parameter
• Category:Still lifes with no apgcode infobox parameter

So if you're in the mood, there's a lot of low-hanging fruit waiting to be picked there! (Due to the way that MediaWiki works, these categories may take a while to be fully populated -- in particular, the "spaceships" one is empty right now, but it certainly won't stay empty.) Apple Bottom (talk) 13:54, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

Spaceships in other rules

I'll take your word that this was indeed incorrect (though I don't quite understand why; perhaps you could be so kind and explain), but I'd like to caution you to not throw around words like "lie" so easily. A lie is a deliberate misstatement intended to deceive — and calling someone a liar is a pretty grave insult. If a statement is factually incorrect, describe it as such, but don't call it a lie unless you have reason to believe it was placed deliberately. Apple Bottom (talk) 00:11, 11 August 2017 (UTC)

List of rules investigated on Catagolue

Hi, just wanted to let you know there's no need to update this manually. No real harm in doing so, of course, but I'm keeping it updated semi-automatically, and any changes you make will be overwritten anyway. Apple Bottom (talk) 21:15, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

That I know - I was just doing it to confirm the fact that all rules without B0, B1 and B2 and without survival conditions and with at least B3 were all searched, which seems to now be true. - AwesoMan3000 (talk) 21:37, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

Fair enough - and to qualify my earlier statement, I of course look at the page's history to see if anyone else has changed it, and if so, try to incorporate those changes (such as additions of rule names). Apple Bottom (talk) 11:39, 16 August 2017 (UTC)

The list of rules, again

Re: this edit --- since I'm the one maintaining these lists, I'd like you to ask to not make changes like that that'll disrupt my workflow for no good reason. Unless, of course, YOU are volunteering to take over maintainership of these lists, in which case I'll stop updating them so you can go wild. Apple Bottom (talk) 18:16, 22 December 2018 (UTC)

Surely it wouldn't be that difficult to split up the hexagonal rulespace list so the script could fill them in individually, though? - AwesoMan3000 (talk) 16:17, 27 December 2018 (UTC)

Check pattern collections before editing

Your recent table in the elementary spaceship section of the spaceship page has many errors. Please check the relevant pattern collection before adding information to the wiki.

Just from memory at least the following are wrong as of this posting (all orthogonal): 3c/9, 2c/10, 5c/15, 10c/20
~Sokwe 02:04, 18 January 2019 (UTC)

"Aircraft carrier" vs. "carrier"

I've been slowly going through and making adjustments to various articles, before running the auto-upload script to collect all your new still life patterns (and other recent additions) for the LifeWiki pattern collection.

For some reason I've been unable to stand the idea of creating files with names like "aircraftcarrierbridgeaircraftcarrier_synth.rle", when the old form "carrierbridgecarrier_synth.rle" seems so reasonable by comparison. "Carrier" has been an unambiguous short form of "aircraft carrier" for a long time. I've also ventured to rename one article ( the a.c. siamese a.c one) back, because the switch to a new name was only partly done anyway -- the actual article text wasn't adjusted.

Really I'd like to move back all of the pages that now say "aircraft carrier" instead of just "carrier", on similar grounds. I feel a bit guilty about doing that, because you no doubt had some reason for making that change semi-systematically in a lot of places. Does that set of moves still seem like it was a good idea? We still have other articles like cis-carrier-tie and trans-carrier-tie, which don't match your new additions like Cis-aircraft carrier tie snake.

If I take the responsibility for changing all these back to plain "carrier" and giving them matching pnames, it would probably make sense to also figure out what you were doing to upload object names to Catagolue. How did that work exactly? There's at least one [typo left to be fixed], anyway.

-- If anyone objects to further changes to these articles, I could easily be convinced to leave them all as they are. There's an awfully big list of things I'd much rather be working on, but it seems like a good idea to get things cleaned up as much as possible before pulling the trigger on the next auto-upload. Dvgrn (talk) 20:58, 24 January 2019 (UTC)

I'm fine with them being moved back to their original pages, in cases where the "aircraft carrier" form of the page name is unwieldily long (>5 words). - AwesoMan3000 (talk) 21:14, 24 January 2019 (UTC)

To be honest, I think most, if not all, of these pages would benefit from "aircraft" being removed, considering that there is virtually no confusion caused by simply calling it a carrier, which also seems to be a more common term than typing out the full name. Ian07 (talk) 01:45, 25 January 2019 (UTC)

Here are the most recently created or changed article names: aircraft carrier bridge aircraft carrier, trans-aircraft carrier tie snake, cis-aircraft carrier tie snake, aircraft carrier bridge snake, aircraft carrier siamese shillelagh, aircraft carrier bridge aircraft carrier, aircraft carrier siamese canoe, aircraft carrier siamese tub with tail, aircraft carrier siamese very long snake, aircraft carrier siamese hook-with-tail hook, aircraft carrier siamese hook-with-tail tail, aircraft carrier tie bipole, aircraft carrier siamese eater tail, aircraft carrier siamese eater head, trans-aircraft carrier down on table, trans-aircraft carrier up on table, cis-aircraft carrier down on table, cis-aircraft carrier up on table, aircraft carrier with feather.

A lot of these were created as new articles for the Great 12-Bit Project, but several were deliberately moved. I'm still not clear on why "aircraft carrier" looked like a better identifier than "carrier". Was it something to do with the alphabetical-order standardization rule that started getting followed about the same time?

I'm having a hard time seeing why it would be a good idea to move back to "carrier" for names with >5 words, but not for the rest of the articles. I'll probably change at least the pnames for all of the above, because if I wait until after the bulk upload it will mean more cleanup needed on the server side. Will probably leave the actual article changes for a while in hopes that someone else will make those adjustments. Dvgrn (talk) 13:41, 25 January 2019 (UTC)

Synthesis patterns

I've been working my way through the hundreds of patterns collected by the auto-upload script, cleaning up the ones that were incorrect in various ways -- missing RLE headers, bad links, and so on. A recurring theme has been pattern syntheses copied from Mark Niemiec's database, with links included and everything, all loaded on December 21, 2018 (example).

Unfortunately the home.interserv.com links have been dead for years. It's been a good bit of work cleaning all these up, so I'd like to try and make sure that no more _synth contributions show up with those dead URLs in them.

I very recently wrote the new part of the auto-upload script that handles _synth files, so there's no way anyone but me could know how it's supposed to work yet. Will have to find the right place to add some decent documentation. Meanwhile I'm putting this note here just because you're one of the few people that has added _synth files to the RLE namespace so far.

Standardization of comment lines

There shouldn't be any need to add #N name lines or any URL links in the RLE namespace pattern file. The script will automatically generate an #N header line, plus a link to the pattern article and to the location of the synthesis RLE file once it gets uploaded to conwaylife.com/patterns. An #O line giving the discoverer of the synthesis would be good if the information is available, and zero or more #C lines after that with any further details (though I think usually that kind of thing can just go in the article, and then the automatic link to the article will get people to that information.)

Also I've been adding a comment line with a direct link to the right place in Mark's database. There's no way to auto-generate that line yet, so it seems maybe useful to have it in the RLE: namespace pattern. To get the URL, go to Mark's search page, paste in the RLE for the pattern being synthesized, and scroll down and find the second link to the pattern name in the search results table.

I'd actually like to suggest holding off on copying large amounts of information from Mark Niemiec's database for the next little while, though. An updated version of Mark's database might show up any year now, and possibly any month, and it may become possible to set up automatic links from pattern pages somehow. Anyway the new version of the database will probably have better syntheses for a lot of patterns, so there's not too much point in uploading lots of static copies of the current state of the database.

Sound reasonable? I'm just making half of this up as I go along, trying to get this auto-upload trick to work... Suggestions would be welcome for where the documentation for _synth standardization should go. Where would you look for it? Dvgrn (talk) 11:52, 26 January 2019 (UTC)

Familiar fours

Shortly after Land of lakes and four eaters were removed (by dvgrn or someone), you added them back. Can we please not have edit wars? There’s already been one this year. Moosey (talk) 18:15, 14 March 2019 (UTC)

Agreed. At the very least, I'd like to see an explanation of A) what these patterns even are and B) whether their names have actually been used anywhere other than the wiki. Even then, are they really "familiar" enough to be mentioned in the article? I might have seen a constellation of two bi-ponds once, but definitely not four eaters. Ian07 (talk) 19:43, 14 March 2019 (UTC)

I agree with Ian07. If you really need to add them to the article, please, at the bare minimum, provide an image or RLE or something of each. Moosey (talk) 01:03, 15 March 2019 (UTC)

The second round of re-adding the exact same text should definitely not have happened the way it did. In a case like this where there's very clear disagreement about what belongs or doesn't belong in an article, it's just plain not good enough to provide a reference only in an edit summary. Most LifeWiki users don't obsessively read the edit summaries...

I've added a reference where it belongs, and with any luck have also changed the offending text just enough that it will be acceptable to everyone. (But if someone edits it further, I promise not to just change it back without any discussion.) Dvgrn (talk) 16:21, 15 March 2019 (UTC)