LifeWiki:Task list

This is a combined public task list for all LifeWiki editors. It lists specific projects that editors have identified as needing to be done. For more general ideas about what to do, see the Helping out page.

All editors are welcome to add ideas or work on any idea listed here. Any task listed here is available for anyone to tackle. More details on how to work on tasks or add tasks to this list are provided at the bottom of the page.

In many cases, the task descriptions are pretty brief. If you'd like more information on any task, just ask on the talk page. Don't worry, asking about a task doesn't mean you have to do it!

Current tasks

This section contains the current list of all tasks that are in progress or that need to be done.

• Add/improve references/citations over the wiki, including but not limited to:
  • In Category:Pages citing websites there are many old instances with {{cite web}} that should be updated with new specialized templates if exist. For instance, {{LinkForumThread}} has not been applied to all forums post references.
  • Complete synthesis info for pages in Category:Synthesizable objects without synthesis reference.
• Manage the 1718 pages under Rule namespace, which are shown in this raw list and this list in lexicographical order. There are at least these to be done:
  • Remove all 2-state range-1 ruletables on the 2d square grid without icon specification, which were created in the pre-INT/MAP era and now should be registered in the LifeViewer aliase list. Also do similar things in the future according to updates of natively supported rule families.
  • Is it possible to design a mechanism that automatically categorizes rules by neighborhood, num_neighbors, symmetries, n_states (num_states), num_nodes, etc, without modifying their individual pages? The includematch in DynamicPageList is something close but not really working as it seems to rely on templates.
  • There have been many Life-related rules with additional states for marking and modifying evolution, for instance Rule:LifeSuper and Rule:StateInvestigator. Make a list of these and compare them in terms of function of each state.
  • Better yet, write comments for obscure rules to explain transitions, and identify reinventions/duplicates of rules.
• Miscellaneous stuff:
  • {{OscNumbers}} is a template to display on headers adjacent members in a family of numerical categories; an example in action can be seen at Category:Oscillators_with_period_100. Probably it should be refactored to a more maintainable form. Some former instances are collected in Category:Category navigation templates, many of which use an old broken DynamicPageList syntax.
  • Special:WantedPages lists non-existing pages that are linked to from at least one place. This list of "red links" may be helpful when looking for missing articles about notable topics. Similarly, Special:WantedFiles lists missing files.
    • (Note: When editing any existing LifeWiki article, you can create a red link by linking to a non-existing page title. If you know about notable topics that are currently missing from LifeWiki, feel free to create red links to the missing pages about such topics (so that other editors know the page is missing), even if you do not currently have time/resources to write those articles yourself; LifeWiki is an unfinished work-in-progress done by many people.)
  • Finish the LifeWiki:FAQ page as per the suggestion on the Talk page, and add it to the links sidebar on the left.
  • (added by Confocal on 2023-08-18) How about creating LifeWiki:Community wishlist for unsolved questions / pattern engineering ideas / software ideas / etc. that are of interest to a significant fraction of the community?
  • Write introductory articles for the LifeWiki:Articles sub-space; expand Tutorials.
  • Include more detail in a LifeViewer section of How to contribute about the various ways to make use of LifeViewer in articles.

Instructions

Working on a task

1. Look through list and see if anything appeals to you.
2. If you can't figure out what a task means or if you're not sure how to do it, ask on the talk page.
3. Once you've picked something you would like to work on, go nuts! You do not need to mark this page to let others know that you intend to take care of that task.
4. If you have completed a task, please remove it from the list.

Adding a task

Any editor can add a task to the page. If there's something that you think needs to be done on the site, add it! If you're not sure about your idea or would like feedback, add it to the talk page and ask for other editors to provide their opinion. Some things to keep in mind are:

• This page is supposed to list specific ideas for projects that editors can work on; more general to-do information is at LifeWiki:Helping out
• Don't add tasks that you are planning on finishing yourself in the near future (e.g., the next week or so); this is supposed to be for tasks that are available for other editors to work on.
• If in doubt, just go ahead and add it. Another editor might move it to a more appropriate place, but it's much better to add the idea so others know about it than to delay adding it because you're not sure where to put it.