Is anything happening with this contest or has it died? There have been no updates on your Twitter account since 28th November and nothing on Facebook since 7th December which just says to check this thread for updates, which you haven’t updated since 14th December.

As far as I can see, I have had no judges from the contest converse with my entry apart from one testing that the entry worked and possibly another one who asked “If happiness was the national currency, what work would make you rich?” (which I sincerely hope is not the expected standard for entries to the contest).

The RobotChatChallenge.com website has remained unaltered for about a month apart from a couple of rather dubious polls added, in which one entry has 1002 votes in one poll (well more than double the bot in 2nd place) and just 2 in the second. The second poll is also missing out voting options for the v1ra and Sal9000 entries.

I know you said you plan to publish the final results but perhaps it would be better for the contest for updates to be a little more frequent, as people will be drifting away and moving on to the next event due to the apparent apathy of the organizers.

To Robo Chat Challenge Team:

I personally would like to see the contest deadline extended to allow botmasters to enter that might have missed the contest. I didn’t enter because I didn’t know anything about it. I’m not sure why you didn’t obtain the e-mail addresses from previous contest (CBC, Chatbot Battles) and email the botmasters personally. If you did I never received one.

What’s the point in having the contest unless ALL the best bots are entered or at least given the opportunity to enter? Looking at your list of participants I see a lot of missing bots.

Extend the deadline and e-mail the botmasters who haven’t entered. Your contest will be much better with their participation.

Wendell Cowart - Dec 29, 2012:

What’s the point in having the contest.

There does not actually seem to BE any contest.  The whole affair appears to be some kind of ruse to get… what I can not be completely sure of, but any kind of competition is surly not one of the outcomes based on what has (or has NOT) happened to date.

Steve put on a real Show with Chat Battles.  This Robo Chat Challenge “contest” is just some static collection of bot links (and two cookie jacked polls) as far as I can tell.

Carl B - Dec 30, 2012:

Wendell Cowart - Dec 29, 2012:

What’s the point in having the contest.

The whole affair appears to be some kind of ruse to get…

Maybe the organisers will e-mail all the participants telling them they have won and ask them for their bank details.

No they wouldn’t do that would they? Well just in case, you have all been warned.   

Data - Dec 30, 2012:

Carl B - Dec 30, 2012:

Wendell Cowart - Dec 29, 2012:

What’s the point in having the contest.

The whole affair appears to be some kind of ruse to get…

Maybe the organisers will e-mail all the participants telling them they have won and ask them for their bank details.

No they wouldn’t do that would they? Well just in case, you have all been warned.

No offence to the promoters but I started having some thoughts in that direction as well (Sorry occupational hazard) I did some research on the person(s) involved, what country the site was hosted in, basic stuff.  Again I dont want to offend if this was a legitimate enterprise, but dissappearing was more than a little odd.  Some of what turned up might be construed as being a little suspicious on the surface although it could also be legit. If anyone would care to email me Ill pass it on. 

VLG

The votes were clearly hacked yep.  Also there were comments hi-lighting this on the site but they mysteriously disappeared.

Well in any case RICH is coming offline. Ive been putting off correcting the learned responses while this was ongoing, but its building up a backlog and everything learned incorrectly just escalates. It picked up the phrase “Hmm….I recommend you” from a bot on Personality Forge (No doubt cool in context) but when every question gets answered that way…well its driving me nuts. Like a 2 year old that keeps using a new word LOL. Anyway to the promoters my apologies if my suspicians are unfounded and a legitimate reason prevented you from continuing in a timely fashion.

Vince

Data - Dec 30, 2012:

Maybe the organisers will e-mail all the participants telling them they have won and ask them for their bank details.

I like to think that people who make chatbots are a fairly intelligent bunch and if this was true, surely a more “low brow” audience would have been targetted?

I’m hoping it’s just the Christmas holidays that have stopped the contest.

I’m more or less hoping the same thing. We’ll just have to wait and see.

For the sake of conversation, with no comment on any contest domain name, and certainly with no offense intended to any person or company ... In general, when the whois database shows a domain name is for sale, it is reasonable to suppose that perhaps that domain name may have just been sold?

Hi all,

It’s not a piece of cake to organize such an event like this and there is no exception here. Regarding the updates and results, we are adhering our own policy and not depicting any other contest or so. We will probably publish the results within a month or so. Please be patient, your patience will be highly obliged.

Regards,

Robo Chat Challenge Team

Robo Chat Challenge Team:

I will ask you again because you did not address my question. Will you extend the deadline to allow other bots that missed the contest to compete? I ran the CBC when we had 100+ bots entering so I don’t see a few extra bots entering burdening the process.

To the Botmasters entered:

Do you want to win a contest when some of the best bots aren’t entered or win knowing you beat the best? That’s an easy question for me to answer. 

I will be glad to provide you with the e-mail addresses. If they choose not to participate that’s fine. But at least give them the opportunity to decide. Once again I knew nothing of the contest and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Wendell Cowart - Jan 3, 2013:

Robo Chat Challenge Team:

I will ask you again because you did not address my question. Will you extend the deadline to allow other bots that missed the contest to compete? I ran the CBC when we had 100+ bots entering so I don’t see a few extra bots entering burdening the process.

To the Botmasters entered:

Do you want to win a contest when some of the best bots aren’t entered or win knowing you beat the best? That’s an easy question for me to answer. 

I will be glad to provide you with the e-mail addresses. If they choose not to participate that’s fine. But at least give them the opportunity to decide. Once again I knew nothing of the contest and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Dear Wendell,

No we can’t, as the competition is under progress at this time. May be all these bots can register the next time.

Best Regards,

Robo Chat Challenge Team

Wendell Cowart - Jan 3, 2013:

Robo Chat Challenge Team:

I will ask you again because you did not address my question. Will you extend the deadline to allow other bots that missed the contest to compete? I ran the CBC when we had 100+ bots entering so I don’t see a few extra bots entering burdening the process.

To the Botmasters entered:

Do you want to win a contest when some of the best bots aren’t entered or win knowing you beat the best? That’s an easy question for me to answer. 

I will be glad to provide you with the e-mail addresses. If they choose not to participate that’s fine. But at least give them the opportunity to decide. Once again I knew nothing of the contest and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

@Robo Chat Challenge Team:
Since there are no advertisments at http://www.v1ra.com it may be possible to share a guest panel with Wendell on my approved contest entry page. For the sake of polite conversation only, asked in good faith, may that be allowed, guest chatbots on an approved contest entry page?

Hey if this doesnt pan out, and if they dont let the other bots in, maybe put togher a monthly “run what you brung” style get together. Take Wendells list and add anyone else that wants in, Friday four names are drawn and those are the judges for that weekend and are excluded from participating [for that weekend]. Run the bots over the weekend, publish the transcripts and the decision on Monday.  No prizes, no sponsors,  no lengthy entry process no excuses. If your bot performs, great, if your having a bad day, no worries theres another one next month.

If you really wanted to turn it into something less informal, do it like any league. You accrue points per contest, at the end of the year high points win. 

Vince