Bot Contest

Who here recomends turning gossip off before the contest?

BJ never uses it anyway, but I quite enjoy other bots' gossip. I dunno - do you think it will fail to impress the judges? I guess that depends how scandalous your gossip is

I was thinking about it.

I turned it off last year. The judges want bots to answer the questions and may start asking "Who is Gigglytits?" if a strange name comes up.

GREAT POINT! I had not thought of some of the names of bots here:O

Sonora may have high development, but I've programmed her more for entertainment value than for answering trivia questions. *shrugs* Whereas a lower development bot who is programmed with good answers to trivia questions will outscore her, hands down. (And, yes, development isn't everything!)

Case in Point (and thanks to Wendell):

Sonora: (to Wendell) Me heap small desert lizard. You...?
Wendell: is that english?
Sonora: What else would it be?
Wendell: jibberish
Sonora: Hang on... I need to go find a rock to sun myself on.

Ack! Ally comes with a blank database. Is this a problem? or will it be judged on how well it learns?

Well, there are only the 10 questions for testing hard knowledge/trivia that I can see. I reckon personality's more important - and there's a medal for 'most popular' of course.

thats all very nice, but with blank databases, ALLY will simply repeat back whatever the judges say. there needs to be some grounds for a conversation. Anyway, I have entered ALLY into the CBC, and included in the entry email that they may need some trained databases. I hope they let me email them some databases, as I recall the entry rules require for the bot to be very simple to install and run.

if you want to zip up a custom distro with a database, I can always put it on her webpage. And you've got an extra five days to tweak it around at least.
Sorry - my last message was in response to Ulrike, but you got a post in between while I was writing it

When english is your second language it's much harder to create any good phrases.Perhaps an extra bonus should be given, maybe not, since you can't prove it. But I would like to know where there is an AI source to create bots in your own language which also uses word net or similar in your own language. Because english is not the first language too many people come up addressing you as retarded. I can't add to every sentence the bot says, not retarded but english being 2nd language, have mercy.