Belated Pattern of the Year competitions

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77topaz
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Belated Pattern of the Year competitions

Post by 77topaz » February 6th, 2018, 11:46 pm

The Pattern of the Year competition "missed" the years 2012, 2013 and 2014. Lists of entries were compiled for 2012 and 2014 but voting was never held, while no list was compiled at all for 2013. Once the 2017 competition finishes, I'd be willing to organise belated competitions for these missed years - it wouldn't be difficult to do, especially for the years that already have entries (I have a spreadsheet to tally the votes). What does everyone else think about this?

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dvgrn
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Re: Belated Pattern of the Year competitions

Post by dvgrn » February 7th, 2018, 9:01 am

77topaz wrote:The Pattern of the Year competition "missed" the years 2012, 2013 and 2014. Lists of entries were compiled for 2012 and 2014 but voting was never held, while no list was compiled at all for 2013. Once the 2017 competition finishes, I'd be willing to organise belated competitions for these missed years - it wouldn't be difficult to do, especially for the years that already have entries (I have a spreadsheet to tally the votes). What does everyone else think about this?
I certainly wouldn't object, though I'm really pretty happy with the current state of things in that LifeWiki article -- the lists of patterns are the important thing, and the voting seems kind of arbitrary at this late date. Seems like participation might be kind of low, and then would it really feel like we had decided on an "official" Pattern of the Year 2012 or 2014?

(I'm still claiming that a list was made for 2013. It contained only the Snark, so that was clearly the consensus Pattern of the Year 2013.)

EDIT: Similarly, the claim was made, with posted agreement and no posted disagreement (EDIT2: Okay, there was some I'm-not-so-sure-I-agreement), that the waterbear was the "undisputed Pattern of the Year 2014". From the same post:
dvgrn wrote:I remember the Snark got specifically mentioned for Pattern of the Year 2013, and the semi-Snark and loafer synthesis and guns and a few other things would be good runners-up. Probably no need to reach back that far. There was a page for 2012 Pattern of the Year, though I'm not sure the voting was ever really completed or tabulated. Doesn't much matter -- seems like making the list is more important than which one wins, anyway.

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77topaz
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Re: Belated Pattern of the Year competitions

Post by 77topaz » February 7th, 2018, 4:24 pm

Since the forums have a lot more users now, I think even a belated competition would probably get more users' votes than the 2010 and 2011 ones. Also, having a list for 2013 containing only the Snark would seem silly to me; it's not like there weren't any other notable discoveries that year compared to the other years of the competition (there was the loafer, the semi-Snark, etc.). Furthermore, in that page about 2014 you linked, there is actually some posted disagreement, in the post directly beneath the linked one.

Finally, it also seems a bit silly to me to have lists of entries compiled that now only need to be voted on, and then arbitrarily not to do that (I think it was quite poor behaviour from the 2012 and 2014 organisers to just abandon their competitions halfway through, too).

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Re: Belated Pattern of the Year competitions

Post by dvgrn » February 7th, 2018, 5:11 pm

77topaz wrote:... having a list for 2013 containing only the Snark would seem silly to me; it's not like there weren't any other notable discoveries that year compared to the other years of the competition (there was the loafer, the semi-Snark, etc.).
True enough -- 2013 was really a very interesting year, with
  • Sokwe's 135-degree MWSS-to-G converter
  • new smaller AK94 gun by MikeP
  • Extrementhusiast's glider synthesis for French kiss
  • my linear propagator almost sort of self-replicating pattern
  • velcrorex's loafer and its various glider syntheses
  • igblan's Seeds of Destruction Game
  • true-period p20 and p40 guns
  • a c/5 orthogonal wickstretcher found by Sokwe
  • MikeP's Snark (last but not least) --
    with resulting circuitry improvements like the smaller p59 gun
77topaz wrote:Furthermore, in that page about 2014 you linked, there is actually some posted disagreement, in the post directly beneath the linked one.
Also true. Re-edited my post to reflect reality.

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Re: Belated Pattern of the Year competitions

Post by Apple Bottom » February 8th, 2018, 1:41 am

77topaz wrote:Finally, it also seems a bit silly to me to have lists of entries compiled that now only need to be voted on, and then arbitrarily not to do that (I think it was quite poor behaviour from the 2012 and 2014 organisers to just abandon their competitions halfway through, too).
True enough, but to answer your original question, I'm on the fence whether a competition should be held now, years in the future. Not that that'll keep me from voting IF you decide to go through with it, mind--!
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77topaz
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Re: Belated Pattern of the Year competitions

Post by 77topaz » February 8th, 2018, 2:22 am

Apple Bottom wrote:True enough, but to answer your original question, I'm on the fence whether a competition should be held now, years in the future.
Well, if anything, we have more experience now on which of those patterns truly proved to be important. Also, this is not the first time a belated POTY competition has been attempted - the entries for 2014 were collated in 2016, although the entries were then never voted on for unknown reasons.
Apple Bottom wrote:Not that that'll keep me from voting IF you decide to go through with it, mind--!
That's good to hear, thank you! :D

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Re: Belated Pattern of the Year competitions

Post by 77topaz » February 17th, 2018, 6:10 am

Unless there are any objections or alternative suggestions, I'll start a thread for a belated POTY 2014 competition once the results for the 2017 competition are announced.

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Re: Belated Pattern of the Year competitions

Post by 77topaz » February 17th, 2018, 6:55 pm

dvgrn wrote:discovery of a record-setting 10x10 Garden of Eden by Marijn Heule et al., using a SAT solver
Also, something I just noticed: wasn't that from 2011, not 2013? The LifeWiki lists Garden of Eden 6 as having been discovered in 2011. Plus, that pattern was one of the entries in the completed POTY 2011 competition.
dvgrn wrote:true-period p20 and p40 oscillators
And here you mean "glider guns", not "oscillators", right?

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Re: Belated Pattern of the Year competitions

Post by dvgrn » February 17th, 2018, 11:27 pm

77topaz wrote:
dvgrn wrote:discovery of a record-setting 10x10 Garden of Eden by Marijn Heule et al., using a SAT solver...
Also, something I just noticed: wasn't that from 2011, not 2013? The LifeWiki lists Garden of Eden 6 as having been discovered in 2011. Plus, that pattern was one of the entries in the completed POTY 2011 competition.
dvgrn wrote:true-period p20 and p40 oscillators...
And here you mean "glider guns", not "oscillators", right?
Yup, that's what I mean. Now I'm not sure what old email list or forum posting I was working from, but apparently Garden of Eden 6 must have gotten re-mentioned in 2013 for some reason. Have patched up my posting accordingly.

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Re: Belated Pattern of the Year competitions

Post by 77topaz » March 9th, 2018, 5:36 pm

dvgrn wrote:
  • Sokwe's 135-degree MWSS-to-G converter
  • new smaller AK94 gun by MikeP
  • a c/5 orthogonal wickstretcher found by Sokwe
Do you have links for these, so I can add them to the belated POTY 2013 competition?

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Re: Belated Pattern of the Year competitions

Post by Sokwe » March 9th, 2018, 5:40 pm

77topaz wrote:
dvgrn wrote:
  • Sokwe's 135-degree MWSS-to-G converter
  • new smaller AK94 gun by MikeP
  • a c/5 orthogonal wickstretcher found by Sokwe
Do you have links for these, so I can add them to the belated POTY 2013 competition?
I was just now collecting these links. I will post them in the 2013 nomination thread.
-Matthias Merzenich

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