POTY 2023 Voting Thread

[Sokwe]

This is the voting thread for the 2023 Pattern of the Year competition. Voting will end at the end of August, 2024 anywhere on Earth. This means that you can still vote for the Pattern of the Year as long as it's still August where you live.

Here is the list of entries (additional links for some of the entries are included in this wiki table):

• #01 Walrus: The first known elementary c/8 diagonal spaceship (by Adam P. Goucher)
• #02 p24 gliderless LWSS gun: This represents the lowest known period for a gliderless LWSS gun. (by Matthias Merzenich, iNoMed, and Christopher D'Agostino)
• #03 (2,1)c/6 knightship tagalong: A surprisingly small tagalong given how long ago Sir Robin was discovered (by Darren Li)
• #04 Charity's p25: The first known strictly volatile period-25 oscillator (by Charity Engine)
• #05 Crotchet ship pseudo-Heisenburp: A nice contraption to detect the presence of certain types of c/3 spaceships (by David Bell)
• #06 p13 domino sparker: The first p13 domino sparker with enough clearance to be useful (by Mitchell Riley)
• #07 8-lane stable glider shifter: A useful conduit that shifts a glider onto another lane without affecting its colour (by Mitchell Riley)
• #08 Spacefiller synthesis: The first ever synthesis of a spacefiller (by Goldtiger997)
• #09 New oscillator discoveries: A continuing project to find new oscillators. In 2023, new oscillators were found for every period up to 94. (by David Raucci, Mitchell Riley, Luke Kiernan, iNoMed, Nico Brown, Carson Cheng, Matthias Merzenich, et al.)
• #10 New small guns: Various record-breaking engine-based glider guns, including periods 42, 49, 52, 59, 61, 68, 70, 72, 84, 126, and 201 (by Mitchell Riley, Carson Cheng, iNoMed, Nico Brown, and Matthias Merzenich )
• #11 Period-2^18 WireWorld metacell: A pattern that emulates a cell in the WireWorld rule (by blah)
• #12 New wickstretchers: More new types of wickstretchers were found in 2023 than in all past years combined, including three new speeds. This includes stretchers for new combinations of speed and wick, as well as improvements to existing types of stretchers. (by Keith Amling, Frank Everdij, Matthias Merzenich, and Hartmut Holzwart)
• #13 (34,7)c/156 Caterpillar: An engineered spaceship based on the (34,7)c/156 Herschel climber reaction (by Luka Okanishi)
• #14 Cribbage: The first period-19 oscillator to be discovered. It was one of the final two periods in the proof that Life is omniperiodic. (by Mitchell Riley)
• #15 p41 dependent reflector loop: The first period-41 oscillator to be discovered. It was one of the final two periods in the proof that Life is omniperiodic. (by Nico Brown)
• #16 Smaller solution to the Unique father problem: A 278-cell still life that satisfies the Unique father problem(by 400spartans)
• #17 Period-41 glider guns: The first guns of period 41. They were found one day after the discovery of the first period-41 oscillator.(by iNoMed, Matthias Merzenich, May13, David Raucci, and Nico Brown)
• #18 New stable pulse dividers: conduits that divide a glider stream by 5, 6, 11, 12, 6n+4, 6n+25 or 6n+26, and 6n+34 or 6n+35 (by Evin, Disaster16439, Louis-François Handfield, Entity Valkyrie, confocaloid)
• #19 New SKOPs: Many new record-breaking oscillators, including periods 12, 38, 49, 68, 76, and 384 and more (by Mitchell Riley, Nico Brown, Carson Cheng, iNoMed, et al.)
• #20 Glider-to-chaos converter: A stable "glider-to-chaos" mechanism that led to discoveries of several reflectors and glider-accepting conduits, including , G → B, G → H, G → P, G → R, G → Q, and G → U (by Mitchell Riley)
• #21 Ultra long-lived Engineered diehards: This year an explosion of diehard discoveries were made, culminating in a pattern that lives for 17^^^3 generations before dying out. (by Pavel Grankovsky, Adam P. Goucher, Tim Coe, toroidalet, EvinZL et al.)
• #22 1413-tick natural diehard: The longest-lived natural 16 × 16 diehard (by Charity Engine)
• #23 HBK caterpillar: Built on the half-bakery reaction, it's the fastest spaceship of its type, achieving a speed of (6,3)c/1024 (by FWKnightship)
• #24 Snark64: A 90° glider reflector that can be used to solve synchronization and glider color problems, as well as being a glider-emitting catalyst (by Carson Cheng)
• #25 G-to-LWSS: The smallest known stable glider to lightweight spaceship converter (by Luke Kiernan and Mitchell Riley)
• #26 Stable Storage Spaceship: The first known spaceship that purely consists of a glider hitting a stable constellation in at least one of its phases(by Goldtiger997)
• #27 Still life synthesis reductions: Optimizations to still life syntheses have led to the completion of the 11-in-5, 15-in-10, and 17-in-15 projects (by Alex Greason, Carson Cheng, Goldtiger997, May13, GUYTU6J, et al. )
• #28 Odd traffic stop: A p2 phase-shifting catalyst that enabled the discovery of multiple odd-period oscillators (by Nico Brown)
• #29 Cleaner Boojum reflector catalyst: By adding a catalyst to clean up the unwanted beehive in the boojum reflector, a series of useful G-to-X’s, including 180° glider reflectors with different timings, are discovered (by Luke Kiernan)
• #30 c/3 against-the-grain greyships: The first c/3 greyship that travels perpendicular to the direction of the stripes (by Keith Amling, Hartmut Holzwart, and Jason Summers)
• #31 Baitless G-to-pi converter: A rare glider catalyst without bait objects, it converts a glider directly into a pi-heptomino, and can be used as a small beehive stopper and in a period-36 glider/pi hassler (by Mitchell Riley)
• #32 Galumpher: A Spartan 180-degree 0hd reflector that is easier to construct than its alternative, the Jubjub reflector (by affamatodidio)
• #33 New c/4 diagonal technology: A significant expansion of medium-period c/4 diagonal technology, including new spaceships, puffers, and rakes of various periods. Of particular note is a period-8 backrake, the first rake to be found by a direct computer search. (by Keith Amling, David Bell, Dmitry Maitak, praosylen, Evin, and Matthias Merzenich)
• #34 Small spacefillers: Several new record-breaking Max predecessors (by Rocknlol)

To vote for a pattern, simply include a line where that pattern's number is, followed by a number of asterisks from one to three corresponding to how strongly you want to vote for that pattern. 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 (and remove lines corresponding to patterns that you don't want to vote for).

#01 Walrus
#02 p24 gliderless LWSS gun
#03 (2,1)c/6 knightship tagalong
#04 Charity's p25
#05 Crotchet ship pseudo-Heisenburp
#06 p13 domino sparker
#07 8-lane stable glider shifter
#08 Spacefiller synthesis
#09 New oscillator discoveries
#10 New small guns
#11 Period-2^18 WireWorld metacell
#12 New wickstretchers
#13 (34,7)c/156 Caterpillar
#14 Cribbage
#15 p41 dependent reflector loop
#16 Smaller solution to the Unique father problem
#17 Period-41 glider guns
#18 New stable pulse dividers
#19 New SKOPs
#20 Glider-to-chaos converter
#21 Ultra long-lived Engineered diehards
#22 1413-tick natural diehard
#23 HBK caterpillar
#24 Snark64
#25 G-to-LWSS
#26 Stable Storage Spaceship
#27 Still life synthesis reductions
#28 Odd traffic stop
#29 Cleaner Boojum reflector catalyst
#30 c/3 against-the-grain greyships
#31 Baitless G-to-pi converter
#32 Galumpher
#33 New c/4 diagonal technology
#34 Small spacefillers

Voting will end at the end of August, 2024 anywhere on Earth.

[Pavgran]

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[pifricted]

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[Goldtiger997]

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[WhiteHawk]

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[Anivec]

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[LucasBrown]

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[C_R_116]

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[b-engine]

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[C28]

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[dexter1]

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[Naszvadi]

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[Haycat2009]

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01 Walrus ** (Not bad)
02 p24 gliderless LWSS gun *** (We need more gliderless guns)
03 (2,1)c/6 knightship tagalong (0) ( Makes me feel dumb for not finding it )
04 Charity's p25 *** (This money goes to helping others...)
05 Crotchet ship pseudo-Heisenburp *** (We need Heisenburp)
06 p13 domino sparker *** (Good)
07 8-lane stable glider shifter *** (Useful)
08 Spacefiller synthesis *** (Could be helpful in making puffer diehards)
09+14+19+15 New oscillator discoveries ** (Why are they split? This vote is for #9. #14, #15 and #19 are just the same thing.)
10 New small guns (0) (Makes me feel dumb for not finding it)
11 Period-2^18 WireWorld metacell ** (Nice work)
12 New wickstretchers *** (They stretch, so do I)
13 (34,7)c/156 Caterpillar *** (Effort needed is appreciated)
16 Smaller solution to the Unique father problem ** (Found by a group of people)
17 Period-41 glider guns *** (Needed)
18 New stable pulse dividers * (Just ok)
20 Glider-to-chaos converter *** (We need those)
21 Ultra long-lived Engineered diehards * (Needs work)
22 1413-tick natural diehard ** (See #21)
23 HBK caterpillar *** (Effort needed is recognised)
24 Snark64 *** (Also a catalyst!!!)
25 G-to-LWSS *** (8 years. 1 converter.)
26 Stable Storage Spaceship ** (What is this?)
27 Still life synthesis reductions ** (Good)
28 Odd traffic stop *** (No p41 pi hassler without this)
29 Cleaner Boojum reflector catalyst *** (Good)
30 c/3 against-the-grain greyships *** (Next step to c/3 spacefiller)
31 Baitless G-to-pi converter *** (Gliders usually need bait)
32 Galumpher *** (Jubjub but Spartan)
33 New c/4 diagonal technology *** (C/4 is only notable if found by Keith Amling or Dave Bell)
34 Small spacefillers ** (But no c/3)

It is never August in Zumaland due to usage of the Positivist calendar. Can I vote in Late Dante and Early Gutenberg?

EDIT by dvgrn: I've removed the following post and the associated post report, since the formatting problem has been resolved:

09+14+19+15 New oscillator discoveries ** (Why are they split? This vote is for #9. #14, #15 and #19 are just the same thing.)

Illegal vote; 9, 14, 19, 15 are four separate entries. Also failing to follow guidelines for voting (i.e. "[...] To vote for a pattern, simply include a line where that pattern's number is, followed by a number of asterisks [...]")

I'm heading out for a vacation road trip today, so I won't be dealing with any post reports until the end of August -- but I'll make an exception for this case! I usually provide the script for double-checking the vote tally ... see below.

@Haycat2009, there's a standard format for voting because that allows the votes to be counted much more reliably. Your format with the asterisks hiding in the middle of the text would have made things quite difficult for vote talliers, when that time comes.

I've patched up your post so that your vote can be counted; feel free to edit it as needed if you want to adjust your vote for any of the items, but please keep the same format as everybody else.

Here's how the process usually works: if someone hand-tallies the votes, and the tally agrees with the output of the following script (which has now been updated for 2023) then the odds are very good that there haven't been any mistakes in the vote tally.

Before anyone worries about this detail: the script removes all quoted text before starting the tally, so quotations like the one above wouldn't cause double-counting, even if I hadn't removed the leading # characters.

@Everyone who hasn't voted yet -- in general, please don't quote other people's posts on this thread anyway! Just give your vote in the standard format, and post any commentary in some other thread like the nominations thread -- keep it simple for the people doing hand tallies.

Code: Select all

# This Python file uses the following encoding: utf-8
# vote-tally-v0.9.py
# Version 0.6:  update maximum number of stars to 5 at b3s23love's request
# Version 0.7:  account for changed format now that Nathaniel has updated to a new PHPBB version
# Version 0.8:  there can be any number of spaces (including zero)
#                     after the number and before the one, two, three, four or five asterisks.
# Version 0.9:  add MAX_STARS variable at top of script, bump back down to 3 for 2023

MAX_STARS = 3

import golly as g
votes = """
PASTE PAGES OF HTML HERE --
just a copy of "View Source" for however many pages of votes there are,
leaving out everything after '<div class="action-bar bar-bottom">' toward the end,
saved as an ANSI text file and then re-opened and re-copied.
On current Windows Chrome at least, here's some Unicode ugliness
hiding in the copied text, which causes parsing errors -- not sure why yet.
<div>#01 *<br />#02 **<br />#03 ***<br />#04 ****<br />#05 *****<br />
"""
# remove all quoted text before parsing
while votes.find("<blockquote")>0:
  bqstart = votes.find("<blockquote")
  bqend = votes.find("</blockquote>",bqstart)
  if bqend == -1:
    g.note("found unmatched blockquote\n"+votes[bqstart:bqstart+1000])
    break
  votes = votes[:bqstart]+votes[bqend+13:]

# look at every HTML substring that might be a line in a message
# increase the 'index' pointer after each find until no more ">.*<" are found
votelist, maxnum, index, d, totals = [], 0, 0, {}, {}
while votes.find(">",index)>-1:
  g.show(str(index))
  linestart = votes.find(">", index)
  lineend = votes.find("<", linestart)
  if lineend==-1:
    index = len(votes)
  else:
    line = votes[linestart+1:lineend]+"[end]"
    line = line.replace("\n","")
    g.show(line)
    index = lineend

    # test whether the latest line is a canonical vote line
    if line[0]=="#":
      numind = 1
      while line[numind].isdigit(): numind+=1
      numstr = line[1:numind]
      if numstr != "":
        # g.note(line + " :: " + numstr)
        num = int(numstr)
        while line[numind]==" ":
          numind+=1
        voteind = numind
        # g.note(line[voteind:voteind+10])
        count = 0
        while line[voteind]=="*":
          count+=1
          voteind+=1
        if count > 0 and count <= MAX_STARS:
          if num > maxnum: maxnum = num
          votelist += [[num, count]]

# build the output table from the collected votes in votelist
for i in range(maxnum):
  d[i+1] = str(i+101)[1:] + ", "
  totals[i+1] = 0
for item in votelist:
  d[item[0]] += str(item[1])+", "
  totals[item[0]] += item[1]
patterns = []

for i in range(maxnum):
  data = d[i+1]
  if data[-2:] == ", ": data = data[:-2] # remove trailing comma
  patterns+=[str(1000+totals[i+1])[1:] + ", #" + data]
sortpat = sorted(patterns, reverse=True)

s = "Total, Pattern #, Votes\n"
for item in sortpat: s+=item +"\n"
g.setclipstr(s)
winner = sortpat[0]
wi = winner.find(",")
g.show("Copied CSV output to clipboard.  Winner is " + winner[wi+2:winner.find(",",wi+2)] + " with " + winner[:wi] + " stars.")

EDIT by dvgrn, 31 December 2025: here's a "version 1.0" with no dependency on Golly, in case that's helpful.

Reply by Haycat: Sorry, I thought votes were tallied by hand. I wanted to include rationalisations for my votes.

[carsoncheng]

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[dbell]

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[wpolly]

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[Chris857]

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[Period1GliderGun]

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[yoleo]

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[Ian07]

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[erictom333]

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[confocaloid]

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[Tawal]

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[rattlesnake]

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[glider_rider]

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