PotY 2020 Nomination Thread

[MathAndCode]

If I might sneak in a couple extra last-minute nominations before we get started with the description writing and voting...

I added the two together. However, in the third paragraph, you appear to have skipped the number 5. Did you simply miscount, or is there another link that I should put in?

[praosylen]

in the third paragraph, you appear to have skipped the number 5. Did you simply miscount, or is there another link that I should put in?

I must have miscounted... Feel free to fix it.

[MathAndCode]

I must have miscounted... Feel free to fix it.

I didn't number the links in my post. I just wanted to make sure that I didn't need to add another link.

[praosylen]

If I might sneak in a couple extra last-minute nominations before we get started with the description writing and voting...

I added the two together.

Sorry to reply to the same post again! You may realize this, but I was suggesting that the skimmers and the agar crawlers/bubbles/clearers be two separate entries... if you disagree please keep them the way you have them, I was mostly just thinking that they're somewhat different concepts and there's enough individual patterns included in each one that it makes sense to split them up to reduce the number of links for each individual entry somewhat. (Also my [newly invented] rule of thumb states that if they're different enough to be put in two different dedicated threads in the forums, they're usually different enough to be separate entries, but that's just my opinion.)

[MathAndCode]

Sorry to reply to the same post again! You may realize this, but I was suggesting that the skimmers and the agar crawlers/bubbles/clearers be two separate entries... if you disagree please keep them the way you have them, I was mostly just thinking that they're somewhat different concepts and there's enough individual patterns included in each one that it makes sense to split them up to reduce the number of links for each individual entry somewhat. (Also my [newly invented] rule of thumb states that if they're different enough to be put in two different dedicated threads in the forums, they're usually different enough to be separate entries, but that's just my opinion.)

I think that they should be combined because the skimmers can be reused for the sides of bubbles (and grayships, so I should merge those), and likewise, agar clearers can be used for the front ends of bubbles or back ends of grayships. They're all different ways of manipulating agar that involve an agar border.

[HartmutHolzwart]

... skimmers can be combined with bubbles and agar clearers, but not with grey ships...

While the former act in the super c/2 realm, the latter act in the sub c/2 realm. These two realms are vastly different, as anybody will agree who seriously touched both areas.

[Sokwe]

... skimmers can be combined with bubbles and agar clearers, but not with grey ships...

I second this. Skimmers, bubbles, and agar clearers should absolutely not be combined with grey ships.

[MathAndCode]

... skimmers can be combined with bubbles and agar clearers, but not with grey ships...

While the former act in the super c/2 realm, the latter act in the sub c/2 realm. These two realms are vastly different, as anybody will agree who seriously touched both areas.

I second this. Skimmers, bubbles, and agar clearers should absolutely not be combined with grey ships.

I have changed it back.

[Goldtiger997]

By now, a month or so into the new year, the usual plan is to have the posts in this thread stop coming in -- so that after a week or two goes by with no new nominations, we can set up a second thread and get the voting going.

Apologies for messing a little with this plan, but I have a few suggestions.

Firstly, I would like to nominate the large number of new exotic spaceship eaters and spaceship-to-G converters that were constructed and/or found last year. There would be a lot of links if I linked all the different eaters, so I'll just post the link to the most recent version of Freywa's collection. There were also a lot of different spaceship-to-Gs, so I will just link what are probably the more interesting ones: 1,2,3,4,5.
Credits for this entry could be: Jeremy Tan, JP21, Luka Okanishi, Adam Goucher, Dave Greene, Goldtiger997, Tanner Jacobi, EvinZL, bubblegum, Aidan Pierce, Louis-François Handfield, Chris Cain, Layz Boi, Blinkerspawn, FWKnightship, Gustone, and gameoflifemaniac. Hopefully I didn't miss anyone. Admittedly, this entry is somewhat similar to #32, but personally I would not suggest they should be merged.

Secondly, I think the c/6 gun by wwei23 and myself should be added to #27 for completeness' sake.

Lastly, I think that Kazyan and myself should be added to the end of the credits for the Speed Demonoid for our work on reductions to the seed constellation, and also for my work on the precursor not-quite-as-speedy demonoid puffer based off 58P5H1V1.

[MathAndCode]

Apologies for messing a little with this plan, but I have a few suggestions.

I have added them to the list, but do you have a link for the reductions to the Speed Demonoid's seed constellation that I can add?

[chenterodri]

Is it about the 186P7H2V0 spaceship. I see there are a variant if you change the "ship´s legs" left to righ, and righ to left. Just that. Regards!

[MathAndCode]

Is it about the 186P7H2V0 spaceship. I see there are a variant if you change the "ship´s legs" left to righ, and righ to left. Just that. Regards!

This was about c/5 and c/6 spaceships, not 2c/7 spaceships. Also, a reflection of a spaceship isn't considered to be a new variant by most people.

[Hdjensofjfnen]

Is it about the 186P7H2V0 spaceship. I see there are a variant if you change the "ship´s legs" left to righ, and righ to left. Just that. Regards!

Though doing this does create a different spaceship, this was already known. The form on the wiki minimizes the bounding box.

[otismo]

I would like to nominate Mr. T's "c10p400l-c7-loafer-banner-w" from the latest page of c/10 Construction.

c10p400l-c7-loafer-banner-w.mc.zip

huge pattern

(416.61 KiB) Downloaded 100 times

very high WoW Factor !

[MathAndCode]

I would like to nominate Mr. T's "c10p400l-c7-loafer-banner-w" from the latest page of c/10 Construction.

c10p400l-c7-loafer-banner-w.mc.zip

very high WoW Factor !

What it is with making new nominations when there are only a few days left in the two-weeks-until-the-last-nomination-has-been-made deadline for initiating voting? If I host this again next year, I will decrease the length of time to one week at longest.

[otismo]

I would like to nominate Mr. T's "c10p400l-c7-loafer-banner-w" from the latest page of c/10 Construction.

c10p400l-c7-loafer-banner-w.mc.zip

very high WoW Factor !

What it is with making new nominations when there are only a few days left in the two-weeks-until-the-last-nomination-has-been-made deadline for initiating voting? If I host this again next year, I will decrease the length of time to one week at longest.

I thought that nominations were closed ( re dvgrn post a while back ).

I only recently saw Mr. T's Pattern. I wonder if anyone has time to see all the new patterns that come out in a year...

Thank You !

[dvgrn]

What it is with making new nominations when there are only a few days left in the two-weeks-until-the-last-nomination-has-been-made deadline for initiating voting? If I host this again next year, I will decrease the length of time to one week at longest.

Heh, you're the one who volunteered to do the maintenance work on this PoTY 2020 thread -- so you get to change the rules whenever that seems like the right thing to do, and declare that the nomination period is over whenever it's obviously time for it to be over.

If anyone objects to your executive decisions, never fear, they'll let you know...!

[Sokwe]

In addition to what Dave said, we need to write brief descriptions for the current entries. We want to come to a consensus on the finalized list before we start the voting thread.

[MathAndCode]

I thought that nominations were closed ( re dvgrn post a while back ).

Now that I look at the first post of this thread again, it appears that I didn't mention it, but my intention was that nominations would end two weeks after the last nomination. I didn't foresee somewhat last-minute nominations extending this back by more than a week multiple times.

Heh, you're the one who volunteered to do the maintenance work on this PoTY 2020 thread -- so you get to change the rules whenever that seems like the right thing to do, and declare that the nomination period is over whenever it's obviously time for it to be over.

In addition to what Dave said, we need to write brief descriptions for the current entries. We want to come to a consensus on the finalized list before we start the voting thread.

I'm going to declare that nominations will end as soon as the list of descriptions is finalized. There's not a set date for that, but anyone who complains about not getting to make a nomination because the list was finalized sooner than that person expected should be reminded that he/she had over one and a half months to make a nomination and that making nominations really doesn't take that long anyway. I'll look at a list of descriptions from past PotY threads in order to get an idea of length and such then start typing some.

[Sokwe]

By the way, anyone is welcome to propose descriptions for entries. They should be about 1 or 2 sentences (no more than 3) and should give a sense of the significance of the pattern. For example:

• 7. Width-12 c/6 orthogonal spaceship (Andrew J. Wade): The first width-12 c/6 orthogonal spaceship. This represents the minimum possible width for period-6 spaceship of this speed.
• 11. Period-28 glider gun (Matthias Merzenich and Paul Callahan): The first true period-28 gun.
• 21. Small c/5 diagonal puffer (Peter Naszvadi): An elegant period-1540 c/5 diagonal puffer that uses only three copies of 58P5H1V1.
• 22. New c/6 diagonal pushalong (Aidan F. Pierce): the first new piece of low-period c/6 diagonal technology in 9 years.
• 23. New greyship technology (Hartmut Holzwart, Keith Amling, Matthias Merzenich): A large collection of new greyship components of varying speeds.
• 24. Beehive push catalyst (Tanner Jacobi): A long-sought catalyst that restores a beehive after a common beehive push reaction.
• 25. 34-bit still life enumeration (Nathaniel Johnston): An enumeration of all 34-bit still lifes and pseudo still lifes. This confirmed that the quad pseudo still life is the unique 34-bit pseudo still life requiring a decomposition into 4 or more pieces.
• 26. 19-bit still life syntheses (credits go here): Glider syntheses for all 19-bit still lifes.
• 27. c/5 and c/6 guns (Entity Valkyrie, Goldtiger997, Martin Grant, Tanner Jacobi, Jeremy Tan, and wwei23): the first known guns for c/5 orthogonal, c/5 diagonal, and c/6 orthogonal spaceships.
• 28. Extensible LoM hasslers (JP21, wwei23, and Matthias Merzenich): extensible oscillators based on lumps of muck.
• 29. New c/5 diagonal spaceships (AforAmpere, Sarp, Aidan F. Pierce, John Winston Garth, and Dylan Chen): Several new c/5 diagonal spaceships of varying shapes.
• 40. Period-10 glider shuttle (Martin Grant): the lowest known period for a glider shuttle.

Some of the more complicated patterns may need slightly more detailed descriptions.

Also, I added the period-10 glider shuttle to the end of the list (I had nominated it, but it seems to not have been added).

[MathAndCode]

By the way, anyone is welcome to propose descriptions for entries. They should be about 1 or 2 sentences (no more than 3) and should give a sense of the significance of the pattern.

Here is what I have so far. I used several of the descriptions that you typed (and thank you for doing so), although I reworded some of them, mainly in order to avoid having to put periods after sentence fragments because they were followed by complete sentences. (This is not intended to insult your grammar; I am only picky about what I type, but that includes anything that I put in here.) Also, while going through the list, I noticed that #18 (New c/10 orthogonal technology) and #39 (c/10 loafer rake) should be combined, so I merged them.

Due to some of the entries having as many as twenty-one links, only the first link is provided for each entry. The full list of links can be seen at the first post of the nominations thread.

• #01 Beehive push catalyst: a catalyst that allows the beehive push reaction, where a beehive affects an active region while being displaced by one cell orthogonally, to be used repeatedly in situations where there is not another synchronized mechanism to push it back, such as in conduits (by Kazyan (Tanner Jacobi))
• #02 Natural loafers: Catagolue soups in the C1 and G1 symmetries that produce the twenty-cell loafer, making it the first spaceship not at the maximum speed for its direction to be found in a random asymmetric soup in B3S23 (by John Goodman (John Goodman), rliston (Rob Liston), and calcyman (Adam P. Goucher))
• #03 34-bit still life enumeration: an enumeration of all 34-bit still lifes and pseudo still lifes, which confirmed that the quad pseudo still life is the unique 34-bit pseudo still life requiring a decomposition into 4 or more pieces (by Nathaniel (Nathaniel Johnston))
• #04 c/61 near-spaceship and slide gun support: a reaction consisting of a pulsar interacting with two blocks that results in the same confirmation 61 generations later shifted by one cell orthogonally if supplied with two dot sparks or certain fishhook-type interactions, which can be provided with gliders from slide guns (by Kazyan (Tanner Jacobi) and Goldtiger997)
• #05 Period-9 heavyweight sparker and associated R shuttle: period-nine domino sparker that has two dot sparks displaced (2.5, 1) from the center of the domino spark, making it a heavyweight emulator, and has better clearance than the previous known period-nine domino sparker, allowing it and an eater 2 to form a periodic RFx9R conduit that can be attached to another copy of itself to form a shuttle (wwei23, A for awesome (Aidan F. Pierce), and hotdogPi)
• #06 p5 drifter-like catalyst/lightweight volcano/periodic catalyst: an oscillator that periodically creates then kills via overpopulation a "block face", allowing it to be used to perturb regions in the same manner as several catalysts without permanently harming the oscillator (by wwei23 and Scorbie (Dongook Lee))
• #07 New c/5 diagonal spaceships: several new c/5 diagonal spaceships of varying shapes (by AforAmpere, Sarp, A for awesome (Aidan F. Pierce), winston (John Winston Garth), and Dylan Chen (Dylan Chen))
• #08 New growing spaceships: patterns in which spaceships create a wick that is consumed at a slower speed than it is created at (by Sokwe (Matthias Merzenich) and A for awesome (Aidan F. Pierce))
• #09 New longest-lasting 16x16 methuselah: an asymmetric 16x16 soup found with Catagolue that takes longer to stabilize than any previous assymetric 16x16 soup not forming Corderbackrakes and a related 16x16 pattern that takes one generation longer to form generation five of said random soup(by rliston (Rob Liston) and Goldtiger997)
• #10 New c/10 orthogonal technology: arrangements of copperheads and fireships that perform various tasks, such as firing a stream of loafers backwards (by Mr. T (Christoph Reinthaler))
• #11 Better universal regulator: a device that can align a set of input glider signals with no period constraints to any output period greater than 73 that is smaller and faster than any previous universal regulator (by Jormungant (Louis-François Handfield))
• #12 19-bit still life syntheses: glider syntheses for all 19-bit still lifes (by Freywa (Jeremy Tan), dvgrn (Dave Greene), Hdjensofjfnen, Ian07, Kazyan (Tanner Jacobi), testitemqlstudop, chris_c (Chris Cain), BlinkerSpawn, Extrementhusiast (Martin Grant), Goldtiger997, wildmyron (Arie Paap), Macbi (Oscar Cunningham), Sokwe (Matthias Merzenich), GUYTU6J, and AGreason (Alex Greason))
• #13 c/5 and c/6 guns: the first known guns for c/5 orthogonal, c/5 diagonal, and c/6 orthogonal spaceships (by Entity Valkyrie, Goldtiger997, Extrementhusiast (Martin Grant), Kazyan (Tanner Jacobi), Freywa (Jeremy Tan), and wwei23)
• #14 Cheaper fixed-cost universal construction: reductions in the cost of reverse caber-tosser-based universal construction by figuring out how to split a target block with gliders instead of needing to use a block-laying switch engine, removing the need for a Sakapuffer, and reducing the number of glider-producing switch enginges required in the circuitry (by chris_c (Chris Cain), calcyman (Adam P. Goucher), and MathAndCode)
• #15 Width-12 c/6 orthogonal spaceship: the first width-12 c/6 orthogonal spaceship, which has the minimum possible width for a period-6 spaceship of this speed (by mscibing (Andrew J. Wade))
• #16 New small Corderships: several new three-engine and four-engine Corderships found using a custom apgsearch symmetry (by wwei23 and Ian07)
• #17 Period-10 glider shuttle: the lowest known period for a glider shuttle (by Extrementhusiast (Martin Grant))
• #18 New agar crawler/agar bubble/skimmer/agar clearer technology: mechanisms to add, remove, travel along, or travel within agar (by wildmyron (Arie Paap), BlinkerSpawn, dani, amling (Keith Amling), Saka, HartmutHolzwart (Hartmut Holzwart), and wwei23)
• #19 Speed Demonoid: a self-constructing diagonal spaceship with speed limit c/4 due to using a crab wickstretcher (by Pavgran (Pavel Grankovskiy), dvgrn (Dave Greene), Tanner Jacobi (Kazyan), and Goldtiger997)
• #20 Extensible LoM hasslers: extensible oscillators based on lumps of muck (by JP21, wwei23, and Sokwe (Matthias Merzenich))
• #21 New c/6 diagonal pushalong: the first new piece of low-period c/6 diagonal technology in 9 years (by A for awesome (Aidan F. Pierce))
• #22 New 2c/7 technology: two new 2c/7 spaceships used to help make puffers and rakes (by winston (John Winston Garth) and mscibing (Andrew J. Wade))
• #23 4×N block agar construction: a way to extend the pseudo still life consisting of a 4×3 rectangle of blocks to a 4×N rectangle for arbitrarily high N using gliders (by Goldtiger997)
• #24 Rob's p16: a useful sparker found when it occurred in the ash of an assymetric Catagolue soup (by rliston (Rob Liston))
• #25 Loafer bitmap printer: a collection of loafer guns that can be toggled by a glider memory tape to produce a message in loafer-pixels (by otismo)
• #26 Cordercolumn and extruder: two ways to stabilize a switch engine with another switch engine behind it and an extruder that emits a line of switch engines using one of the methods (by wwei23, AbhpzTa (Luka Okanishi), and Ian07)
• #27 Stable L122: a stable version of the L122 conduit, which previously only had periodic versions (by A for awesome (Aidan F. Pierce))
• #28 Stable barge-crosser: a way to transmit a glider signal across an infinitely long barge without permanently damaging it (by Goldtiger997)
• #29 Small c/5 diagonal puffer: an elegant period-1540 c/5 diagonal puffer that uses only three copies of 58P5H1V1 (by Naszvadi (Peter Naszvadi))
• #30 New grayship technology: a large collection of new greyship components of varying speeds (by amling (Keith Amling), HartmutHolzwart (Hartmut Holzwart), and Sokwe (Matthias Merzenich))
• #31 Glider syntheses from Glider_stdin: glider synthesies based on a result from a custon Catagolue symmetry where gliders are fired at each other in a random configuration (by testitemqlstudop, Kazyan (Tanner Jacobi), wildmyron (Arie Paap), GUYTU6J, and goldenratio)
• #32 New XWSS signal technology: improved mechanisms for detecting XWSS signals (by dvgrn (Dave Greene), calcyman (Adam P. Goucher), and Goldtiger997)
• #33 Silverfish: a new smallest spaceship to use the 31c/240 Herschel climber (by chris_c (Chris Cain), dvgrn (Dave Greene), calcyman (Adam P. Goucher), Nathaniel (Nathaniel Johnston))
• #34 "Bandersnatch" color-changing glider-to-glider conduit: a color-changing glider-to-glider conduit, which can be used to solve glider color mismatches (by Extrementhusiast (Martin Grant) and Entity Valkyrie 2)
• #35 New exotic spaceship eaters and spaceship-to-G converters: new mechanisms to eat spaceships or turn them into glider signals (by Freywa (Jeremy Tan), JP21, AbhpzTa (Luka Okanishi), dvgrn (Dave Greene), calcyman (Adam P. Goucher), Goldtiger997, Kazyan (Tanner Jacobi), EvinZL, bubblegum, A for awesome (Aidan F. Pierce), Jormungant (Louis-François Handfield), chris_c (Chris Cain), Layz Boi, Blinkerspawn, FWKnightship, Gustone, and gameoflifemaniac)
• #36 Record-setting diehards: patterns found from soup searches searches that take longer to settle without leaving any ash than any previously known patterns fitting in a bounding box of the same size (by rliston (Rob Liston), goldenratio, and Moth Wingthane)
• #37 Smaller 3c/7 spaceships: the second and third known 3c/7 spaceships, both of which are smaller than the first known 3c/7 spaceship (by Dylan Chen (Dylan Chen))
• #38 Period-28 glider gun: the first true period-28 gun (by Sokwe (Matthias Merzenich) and pcallahan (Paul Callahan))
• #39 Glider syntheses for 56P6H1V0, 58P5H1V1, turtle, 31P8H4V0, 44P5H2V0, 70P2H1V0.1, 55P9H3V0, and 44P5H2V0: ways to make various spaceships from gliders (by Tanner Jacobi (Kazyan), Extrementhusiast (Martin Grant), Goldtiger997, AforAmpere, Blinkerspawn, calcyman (Adam P. Goucher), and mniemiec (Mark D. Niemiec))

To vote for a pattern, simply include a line where that pattern's number is followed by with a number of asterisks from one to three corresponding to how strongly you want to vote for that pattern. (Note that the patterns have been shuffled compared to the nominations thread, as is the standard.) If you do not want to vote for a pattern, simply do not include a line with its number. In case some of you are concerned about mixing up the numbers, here is a version optimized for voting. Simply replace the name of each pattern with the number of asterisks that you want to give it.
#01 Beehive push catalyst
#02 Natural loafers
#03 34-bit still life enumeration
#04 c/61 near-spaceship
#05 p9 heavyweight emulator
#06 p5 lightweight emulator/catalyst
#07 New c/5 diagonal spaceships
#08 New growing spaceships
#09 New longest 16x16 methuselah
#10 New c/10 orthgonal technology
#11 Better universal regulator
#12 19-bit still life syntheses
#13 c/5 and c/6 guns
#14 Cheaper universal construction
#15 Width-12 c/6 orthogonal spaceship
#16 New small Corderships
#17 p10 glider shuttle
#18 New agar technology
#19 Speed Demonoid
#20 LoM hasslers
#21 New c/6 diagonal pushalong
#22 New 2c/7 technology
#23 4×N block agar construction
#24 Rob's p16
#25 Loafer bitmap printer
#26 Cordercolumn
#27 Stable L122
#28 Stable barge-crosser
#29 Small c/5 diagonal puffer
#30 New grayship technology
#31 Glider syntheses from Glider_stdin
#32 New XWSS signal technology
#33 Silverfish
#34 Bandersnatch
#35 Spaceship eaters and spaceship-to-G converters
#36 Record-setting diehards
#37 Smaller 3c/7 spaceships
#38 p28 gun
#39 Spaceship glider syntheses

Also, I added the period-10 glider shuttle to the end of the list (I had nominated it, but it seems to not have been added).

Whoops. I must have missed it. I'm sorry about that.

[HartmutHolzwart]

Descriptions of #33 and #34 are accidentally reversed.

[MathAndCode]

Descriptions of #33 and #34 are accidentally reversed.

Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I have fixed it.

[creeperman7002]

Should I open the voting thread or wait?

[bubblegum]

Should I open the voting thread or wait?

Waiting is fine. (Starting it at exactly midnight UTC would be nice too.)