Thread for your website-related questions

[hotdogPi]

I'm on another forum where the options are 5, 10, 25, and 50, and they can be set per user. The forum default is 25. However, it uses SMF, which this forum does not.

[dvgrn]

I'm on another forum where the options are 5, 10, 25, and 50, and they can be set per user. The forum default is 25. However, it uses SMF, which this forum does not.

Yup -- even if there's some secret URL param like "postsperpage=X", I kind of doubt there's going to be a "postsperpage=infinite".

Here's a more workable way to do this kind of thing. I looked at my previous link to Python scraper code, and it would be confusing to anyone who isn't familiar with recent goings-on in Python -- a lot of that code was written back when Golly supported Python 2 instead of Python 3.

Here's a working starter script:

Code: Select all

# get-all-posts-in-thread.py
# Version 1: initial working Python3 version

import golly as g
from urllib.request import urlopen

threadnum = g.getstring("Enter thread number: ","2817")
url = "https://conwaylife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=" + threadnum + "&start="

startval = 0
count = 0
flag = 0
s = ""

while flag != -1:
  page = url + str(startval)
  g.show("Retrieving data for startval = " + str(startval))
  startval+=25
  try:
    resp = urlopen(page)
    html = resp.read().decode()
    #############################################################
    # add some parsing code here to append only the relevant part
    #   of each chunk of html, skipping headers and footers
   
    s += html
    
    #############################################################
  except:
    g.note("Got an error on startval=" + str(startval))
    g.exit()
 
  # continue until there's no right-arrow icon at bottom of page
  flag = html.find("icon fa-" + "chevron-right") # break search string in code, so that threads containing this script can still be exported!

g.show("Done. Result copied to clipboard. Retrieved " + str(startval//25) + " pages.")
g.setclipstr(s)

This just needs a very few additional lines of parsing code in the middle, depending on what use this HTML is going to be put to. At the moment the output to the clipboard is a concatenated copy of each individual page, so there are lots of duplicate copies of the header and footer sections.

I don't usually write complete scripts on request, since it seems better in the long run to encourage people to learn how to do this kind of thing themselves -- it isn't rocket surgery. Anyone else can feel free to take over from here.

[Citation needed]

Are the recent posts deleted or are they just hidden?

[dvgrn]

Are the recent posts deleted or are they just hidden?

The logs say the posts in question have all been deleted, after some further investigation by Sokwe.

[Citation needed]

It seems that another account was created and then deleted quickly.

[Haycat2009]

Help: I think that I have been IP blocked by mistake. Can someone help me fix it please? My account is not hacked, there have been no instances of poor behaviour recently on my side and my username is acceptable as far as I know.

[dvgrn]

Help: I think that I have been IP blocked by mistake. Can someone help me fix it please? My account is not hacked, there have been no instances of poor behaviour recently on my side and my username is acceptable as far as I know.

Some more specifics would be good here. Is this an apparent IP block on the forums, or on the LifeWiki? Is the problem still continuing?

[get_Snacked]

why does the PFP size limit suck? all one has to do as a website manager is just resize the picture to not be too big if it has too many pixels. not that hard.

[Sokwe]

all one has to do as a website manager is just resize the picture to not be too big if it has too many pixels.

Resizing pictures inherently alters them, something that some users might find undesirable. I personally think it's better for the user to adjust their own avatar to fit the constraints of the forums, rather than have the forums modify the avatar. I've never tried to use an avatar myself, so I'm not exactly sure how it works.

[Haycat2009]

Help: I think that I have been IP blocked by mistake. Can someone help me fix it please? My account is not hacked, there have been no instances of poor behaviour recently on my side and my username is acceptable as far as I know.

Some more specifics would be good here. Is this an apparent IP block on the forums, or on the LifeWiki? Is the problem still continuing?

It was on the Lifewiki, but the problem no longer continues - it was a few days ago though.

[WhiteHawk]

While updating the Wiki to reflect the discovery of the period-35 glider gun, I found that I couldn't figure out how to properly format the Guns with period 35 page to properly group with the other gun periods on the page below.

Category:Guns with specific period

How do I properly format the page to correctly group the categories together?

[confocaloid]

While updating the Wiki to reflect the discovery of the period-35 glider gun, I found that I couldn't figure out how to properly format the Guns with period 35 page to properly group with the other gun periods on the page below.

Category:Guns with specific period

How do I properly format the page to correctly group the categories together?

You need to create a page in the MediaWiki namespace "Category:" (i.e. Category:Guns with period 35).

What you did was to create a page in the main (article) namespace instead: Guns with period 35

edit: now fixed by hotdogPi: https://conwaylife.com/w/index.php?titl ... ogid=60451

[WhiteHawk]

Thanks Confocaloid.

Somewhat related, but why is the lifeviewer window for the original p47 glider gun so large? It's really distracting and should probably be changed.

Period-47 glider gun

[confocaloid]

Thanks Confocaloid.

Somewhat related, but why is the lifeviewer window for the original p47 glider gun so large? It's really distracting and should probably be changed.

Period-47 glider gun

The infobox viewer should be hidden in that case entirely, and the pattern should instead be shown in an embedded viewer within the body.

Unrelatedly, many of your recent additions of "In other rules" sections in the main namespace go against LW:NB, both in the content not being notable enough in the context of those topics, and in your additions violating the rule "Do not document your own stuff" mentioned in LW:NB.
Please avoid further additions of this kind.
The wiki is primarily about Conway's Life, and especially the main namespace is about Conway's Life. Many of the "In other rules" sections look and feel like clutter.

[Citation needed]

Is there a thread for "OCA investigator" rules?

[b-engine]

Is there a thread for "OCA investigator" rules?

I generally post OCA Investigator rules in the same thread as LifeInvestigator (Extended Life Extensions).

[confocaloid]

Is there a thread for "OCA investigator" rules?

I think it makes sense to have such a thread, and I started it because I could not find an existing match.
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=6799 "[R]Investigator (reactions, patterns, discussion)"

Quoting from the first post of the new thread:

This is a forum thread for discussing stuff found in "Investigator" versions of two-state cellular automata, including both StateInvestigator and <OCA>Investigator.

• viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4009 "Extended Life Extensions" is related-but-different, both because that thread is focused on StateInvestigator, and because that thread also contains some discussion of other ways to "extend" Conway's Life.
• viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6142 "[Rule]Investigator support in Golly" is about the built-in support in Golly 4.3 for the family.
• viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6000 "[R]Investigator rule generator" gives scripts to generate .rule files, e.g. for older versions of Golly without built-in support.
  [...]

[PiSpaceships]

How to make my rule recognized by LifeViewer?

[confocaloid]

How to make my rule recognized by LifeViewer?

The simplest way (especially for "one-time" or "demo" patterns) is to append the content of the .rule file after the RLE, like this:

Code: Select all

x = 8, y = 6, rule = Demo
.2A$2A$.A$6.2B$5.2B$6.B!

@RULE Demo

@TABLE
n_states:3
neighborhood:Moore
symmetries:permute
# ...
# ...

If the rules are settled and will not change anymore, then it's possible to upload the "final version" of the .rule file (ruletable or ruletree) into the "Rule:" namespace on the wiki, then appending it as above will be unnecessary. For example, Rule:Symbiosis exists and contains the content of the corresponding .rule file, so one can post a pattern like this:

Code: Select all

x = 8, y = 6, rule = Symbiosis
.2A$2A$.A$6.2B$5.2B$6.B!

[PiSpaceships]

How can I change the username?

[dvgrn]

How can I change the username?

A username change isn't something that you can do yourself.

I used to think that it required permissions that only the site admin had, but Sokwe (a moderator) seems to have permissions to do it now. I haven't looked into learning how to actually do a username change yet -- partly because the forums are only "reluctantly moderated", and partly because it can be fairly confusing and messy when long-established users change their names. It's something that ideally should happen only rarely and when there's a really good reason.

Given this special case where you only have sixteen posts, it would be perfectly workable for you to simply create a new user account with the name that you want and start using it. If you send me a PM from the new account, something that I _do_ know how to do is to change the ownership of the sixteen existing posts from "TBPO" to the new account (if that's what you want to happen).

[confocaloid]

[...] If you send me a PM from the new account, something that I _do_ know how to do is to change the ownership of the sixteen existing posts from "TBPO" to the new account (if that's what you want to happen).

I guess it makes sense to state the obvious: just sending a PM from the new account doesn't prove that the owner of the account is the same person. That would open the vulnerability where someone claims that they are a new account of some other currently-inactive user, and takes ownership of posts by someone else. There needs to be additional confirmation from the old account.

[dvgrn]

I guess it makes sense to state the obvious: just sending a PM from the new account doesn't prove that the owner of the account is the same person. That would open the vulnerability where someone claims that they are a new account of some other currently-inactive user, and takes ownership of posts by someone else. There needs to be additional confirmation from the old account.

Heh, yes, I did mentally review that. In practice it's probably safe to assume that I will exercise basic common sense and check that things like IP addresses match. But again, this is a very special case -- I'm not volunteering to make a habit of doing this, or to do post reparenting for any account with more than about 2^4 posts.

In the unlikely event that someone did manage to fool me into an incorrect ownership change, a sixteen-post move can be undone just as quickly and easily as it was done.

[b-engine]

I used to think that it required permissions that only the site admin had, but Sokwe (a moderator) seems to have permissions to do it now. I haven't looked into learning how to actually do a username change yet -- partly because the forums are only "reluctantly moderated", and partly because it can be fairly confusing and messy when long-established users change their names. It's something that ideally should happen only rarely and when there's a really good reason.

Therefore, could a user with almost 2400 posts change his username? Maybe not. If could, I request change my username to T6970.

[dvgrn]

Therefore, could a user with almost 2400 posts change his username? Maybe not. If could, I request change my username to T6970.

Heh, the method I used for PiSpaceships won't work -- I changed each of the sixteen posts to a new owner, one at a time -- didn't have to rename the account. I'm not sure exactly how that's done.

I could no doubt find out if there was a really good reason -- or maybe somebody who knows the trick could make the change. But it seems like no reason of any kind has been mentioned yet.