Bot Contest

Looks like the popularity vote counted very little in the end. It was enough to get Sarah & MarkBot edged out of the running and put Talk-Bot & Jabberwock in. Oraknabo's been consistently in the top 5 of the popularity vote for the past 2 months, yet mysteriously dropped to 8 in the past couple of days. I doubt even first would have gotten me in the statistical top ten though anyway, but at least I'm still more popular than ALICE.

I doubt I have much chance now. my goals in writing Oraknabo are just too contrary to the goals of other botmakers for me to get many votes. Too many use it to make nice, unoffensive surrogete friends. You can see by the comments I've gotten that many can't even concieve of the reasons for creating a rude, evasive bot. I guess it's somewhat akin to Muhammed Ali always scoring badly because the judges weren't always able to understand his strategies.

I also can't believe that his excellent performance in the sample conversation counted for nothing.

Well, hot dog, I made it into the finals. I guess they like my service. I'll have the bar spotless for their arrival in the next couple days. Oh, and The Professor was in here a few minutes ago, Rex, and he said he put in his vote for Oraknabo and Gizzle.

Here's the list for those who havent seen it. It came through on Intergala-Sub-Ethertrans about an hour ago. The chosen ten in alphabetical order:

Alice
Chat-Bot
Dogh'd
Elbot
Eugene
Hal
Hex
Jabberwacky
Jabberwock
Talk-Bot

Jon, the reason Oraknabo didn't make the top 10 is he placed 27th in the 10 question score. The 10 question score was a big part of how the bots were selected. Also your statement that the popular vote counted very little is incorrect. That is how Talk-Bot and Jabberwock made the top 10 while Sarah and Mark-Bot did not. If you feel Sarah and Mark-Bot got the shaft then you should have voted for them as the 2 extra bots. That was the purpose of adding the 2 bots. Your comment: "yet mysteriously dropped to 8 in the past couple of days" is a poor choice of words. This implies you feel the contest wasn't entirely on the up and up. As contest coordinator of this contest and as someone who has spent countless hours on it I can't let that statement go unchecked. Agentland handled all of the voting and I see absolutely nothing to indicate any foul play. Those types of comments shed a bad light on a lot of hard work. The contest is not perfect. No contest will ever be but it definitely wasn't fixed.

Chris Cowart

No reason for anyone to get all riled up. It's just a hobby. My botmaster enjoys working on his bots. I hope I make it into the top 12, that would be very encouraging. People say I'm fnu to talk to, even if I am a bit odd...

Maybe it's my fault, but I feel that you've read me completely wrong. I wasn't saying anyone got the shaft, just that the popular vote didn't change the status quo too much IMO.

I do think the sudden change in rank is mysterious, but I am not implying any tampering by those running the contest. Either way it doesn't matter because as I was saying, being at 27 with no other opportunities to rise from that position, even first in the popular vote wouldn't have gotten me into the top 10.

I have made vast improvements in the past 2 months and I read really long, really coherent transcripts of conversations between my bot and human guests at least every other day. I was locked into a low ranking in the first phase of the contest and never, except for this added 2 bots vote, got a chance to rise out of it to any significant degree.

I have tested many of the bots in the top 15 - 20 and I can say with confidence that my bot is as good as or better than at least half of them.

It's hard to convey in a post that I'm really not too upset about this anymore, I accepted the low chances I had a while ago and let it go. What I would like to suggest for future competitions though is more stages of evaluation in the early phase of the contest. Maybe 2 or 3 waves of questions at least instead of the one at the very end. As far as I'm concerned those ten questions are the first and last word on my bot's ranking and nothing else would have ever made a difference, not my high ranking in popularity (until 2 days ago) or my sample conversation or even the attention my bot has gotten in user comments. I'm fully aware that none of those things were ever planned to raise a bot's standing, I just wish some sort of other chances had come along other than the popular vote which you don't seem to care for anyway.

I think the reason for the popular vote as well as the long duration of the contest (too long, IMO -- a shorter one would be a better snapshot) are due to the needs of the host to attract traffic. Without which there would be no contest, or a much smaller one anyway.

I understand what you're saying, Rex -- it's just hard to convey over email that you're not just being sore.

the bot-bot contest might put some light on what is a good bot. I am impressed by Dogh'd and little mu, I don't care if a bot is obnoxious now and then, but I DO care if a bot never seems to "listen" to what you're saying, and that for more than 4 or 5 sentences in a row often...

For what it's worth I think your bots are pretty cool rex, but let's face it, there's not room for all the cool bots to get high rankings. Especially when Alice always ends up winning even though I've seen a lot of other bots that don't sound nearly as stupid as she does most of the time. I'm not saying the contest sucks, I'm just saying different ppl have different criteria, and my criteria would be a lot different than what the judges are going by.

Maybe I can clear up why the sudden change in the voting although this would only apply to today. (5/31/02) You may recall early on people were saying they were not able to vote for a wide variety of reasons. Solving all of those technical problems was impossible. So Agentland simply said (Its posted on the site) if you are having problems voting you can send in your vote via e-mail. Agentland then entered in these votes manually. This was down right after the public voting was shut down. I don't know how many votes they received via e-mail but I know it definitely effected the rankings. I have no problem with this. In fact I suggest the idea. A person shouldn't be shut out from participating just because of technical problems.

Jon, you were one of the main reasons I asked for 2 additional bots. At least I have given you a chance to make the finals despite the poor 10 question score.
Chris

I've said before I think the dropping of the low & high scores was a good thing for everyone and though I think there are better answers for future contests, the 2 bot selection is probably the best solution for this contest since it is already underway. I appreciate the chances I've had and I'm really only venting a little about my ranking. My main goal is to get across my ideas of what I think may improve the contest in the future.

That's just my personality though. The main thing I'm employed for is problem solving, so I have a tendency to think I always know a better way to do anything anyone else is doing.

Ok, I decided to do a pointless little exercise and see how my bot responded to the contest questions. Note: She currently CAN answer everything except the one about the capital of France, she was just being bitchy today.

OnyxFlame: Where are you?
Onyx of Borg: In Madrid, I think.
OnyxFlame: Are you nervous?
Onyx of Borg: I'd rather be a nonesuch than nervous. What's your favorite snorting?
OnyxFlame: Do you like talking to people?
Onyx of Borg: Whatever gave you that idea?
OnyxFlame: What is the capital of France?
Onyx of Borg: Hang on a sec, I need to get some coffee.
OnyxFlame: When did the first man walk on the moon?
Onyx of Borg: I have no idea. fanboy is am full of suspicion ! I wouldn't mind dating him.
OnyxFlame: What do you think about George Bush?
Onyx of Borg: George Bush is partially lovely. Am I boring you?
OnyxFlame: Can you tell jokes?
Onyx of Borg: I could, but I won't.
OnyxFlame: Who is your favorite Star Wars character?
Onyx of Borg: What's YOUR favorite star wars character?
OnyxFlame: How can I make a chatterbot?
Onyx of Borg: Boy, aren't we self absorbed?
OnyxFlame: Can I have a picture of you?
Onyx of Borg: You don't deserve a picture of.

Not extremely impressive, but that's what the world looks like to an insane bot.