This was posted on the Robitron boards and I thought I would post it here in case anyone wants to enter:

Hello,

I would like to invite all botmasters to enter The International Chatbot Contest. First let me say this contest is not unique. It is basically the CBC with a bit of the Chatbot Battles thrown in. In fact, the website, the rules and scoring, etc. are virtually identical to the old CBC. For more details please visit the website at http://contest.atwebpages.com/

The prize money is set up in a way to encourage participation and for fellow botmasters to encourage other botmasters to enter. The more people that enter the more you have to win. For every bot that enters the contest I will award $100 in prize money up to $5000.

For example:

10 people - $1000
25 people - $2500
37 people - $3700
50 or more - $5000

So please get the word out. I look forward to your participation.

Kevin L. Giordano

I can’t post what I’m thinking, Steve. And as I don’t know this person (or even know of him), I’m skeptical, at the very least; and this from one of the most trusting people you’re likely ever to meet. If you’ve had dealings with this person in the past, would you be willing to share what you think of the man and his post on Robitron?

I’ve not had dealings with him and don’t know him either but the contest is free and so nothing to lose I guess?

True. I guess that the recent disappointment of the Robo Chat Challenge has left me a bit jaded.

By chance did you invite him over here, to share the information first-hand?

No but as he was encouraging people to enter, I thought I’d cut and paste his message on a few chatbot boards. Hopefully, it will be a genuine competition and not just a time waster.

Dave Morton - Jan 18, 2013:

True. I guess that the recent disappointment of the Robo Chat Challenge has left me a bit jaded.

By chance did you invite him over here, to share the information first-hand?

Hi, Dave

I published the link on my Virtual Humans Forum and I also sent a mail to Kevin L. Giordano (whom I don’t know) suggesting to post some info here on the Chatbots.org, but I didn’t get any answer.

I entered the contest hoping it will be less disappointing than the RoboChat Challenge.

Anyway, after the end of the CBC, the only serious contest has been Chatbot Battles; it would be great if Steve could organize a new session of it. I know it requires a lot of time, so we might try to help him in some way. Just an idea…

IS the Robochat Challenge considered a scam then ?  What’s the latest thinking on that ?

I don’t think it’s a scam as we haven’t paid any money to enter. However, the closing date for entries was nearly 2 months ago and as far as I can tell, nobody has had their entry visited by anyone who looked like a judge, so I’m guessing it’s pretty much dead. The organisers said on January 3rd, they would publish the results within a “month or so”, so I guess when February comes and goes, we can see how genuine this contest was.

Vittorio Rossi - Jan 20, 2013:

... it would be great if Steve could organize a new session of it. I know it requires a lot of time, so we might try to help him in some way. Just an idea…

While I would love to organise Chatbot Battles again this year, I am in two minds whether to do it or not. Last year saw me giving up around 3 hours a day for about 2 months to run this thing and having botmasters emaililng in with criticism about every single thing about the contest is making me think twice.

I don’t intend to post this as coming over as a drama queen/attention seeker waiting for people to say “run it again”, “oh go on” or whatever. I just need to think whether I am willing to give up my time again to have an ungrateful set of divas complain at me.

I have had an idea for a contest that will not take up as much of my time and so may develop that this year.

I agree with you, Steve. You have done a great job and some botmaster was only able to complain.

Let me know if there is some way I can help you in organizing and managing the next contest.

Well, I’ve submitted RICH.

@Steve In the future may I suggest using this free complaint utility on your website.

Enter your complaint here -> □

Vince

I woldn’t be getting too excited about the above contest. It now comes up as “Page not found” when clicking on the link.
Has anyone accessed the main site at http://www.atwebpages.com ?
It’s just a page of plain text and hardly inspires confidence.

Steve Worswick - Jan 21, 2013:

I woldn’t be getting too excited about the above contest. It now comes up as “Page not found” when clicking on the link.
Has anyone accessed the main site at http://www.atwebpages.com ?
It’s just a page of plain text and hardly inspires confidence.

As a matter of fact I just did that. A whois shows that its registered to AttractSoft GMBH and their website is a little more substantial.

http://www.attractsoft.com

Vince

Well, I don’t know anything about Kevin Giordano other than to say I did receive an invitation to participate in his contest which is more than I got from the Robo Chat Challenge Contest.

I hope people will participate if for no other reason than it adds $100 to the ultimate winner’s prize money. $5000 isn’t winning the lottery but it’s a significant increase from any prize money ever awarded in the CBC.

I just received a personal invitation from Kevin Giordano to enter Morti in the contest, and while I had pretty much decided earlier to retire Morti from competition after the Robo Chat Challenge in order to concentrate on other chatbot related projects, my desire to support the chatbot community outweighed my “good sense”, and I went ahead and entered him. Best of luck to all entrants, and to quote a moderately popular movie, “May the odds be ever in your favor!”

I hope the recent events concerning the Robo Chat Challenge Contest is not casting a negative light on my contest. I have already invested a lot of time and a significant amount of money (to me at least).  Actions speak louder than words but I’m not sure what I can do to change that perception until the deadline of the contest passes and you start to see the transcripts being posted to the contest site.

I hope people are keeping up with the updates posted to the site. Messages like these often go unseen. The website at
http://contest.atwebpages.com/ is the offical place for updates.

K Giordano
The International Chatbot Contest