Forum Rules

[Nathaniel]

After over 7 years, it seems like it's finally time to formally write down the rules of these forums, especially with the surge in visitors that we've been experiencing lately.

Last Updated: March 21, 2016

1. Be kind, honest, and respectful. This includes:
   
   1. Assume the best of others. If their comments can be taken in a positive light, do so.
   2. Do not pry for others' personal information or post it without their permission.
2. This is an English-language academic forum:
   
   1. Minor usage of other languages is acceptable; entire posts in other languages are not.
   2. Foul language/profanity is not acceptable here.
3. In order to keep the forums organized, please:
   
   1. Do not post multiple messages consecutively in the same topic. If your message is the most recent one in a topic, simply edit it if you have additional things to add.
   2. Do not post in topics that have been inactive for over a year without good reason.
   3. Keep the formatting in your posts simple. The use of bold/italics/underline/font color/font size is not necessary in most cases.
   4. Quoting earlier posts is fine (and encouraged), but only quote text that is actually relevant to your post. Do not nest quotes too deeply (e.g., do not quote a quote of a quote of a quote).
4. This is an academic forum, not a chat or microblogging platform. Please spend some time doing some research to familiarize yourself with what is and isn't already known about the Game of Life before posting your discoveries. Some places where you can look up what is known about Life include:
   
   1. Jason Summers' Life page
   2. Mark Niemiec's pattern searcher.
   3. Our own LifeWiki.
   Some specific examples of discoveries that won't be of interest to this community include:
   
   1. A new still life.
   2. A methuselah that lasts fewer than 20,000 generations or is larger than a 20-by-20 box.
   3. An alternate stabilization for a reaction (unless it is smaller than the smallest currently known).
   If you decide to share your discovery with the forums, please do not post an image of the pattern. Instead, post the RLE code of the pattern within [code] tags. The easiest way to obtain the RLE code of a pattern is to select the pattern in Golly and then copy it to your clipboard.