You sent it directly to Bletchley Park?

(Last time in 6th place, never made it out of New York City.)

London, Exeter, it’s all the same Dropbox to me.

Steve Worswick - Jul 31, 2014:

Good luck to everyone who has entered. Out of curiosity, can I ask who has entered?

I know of 6 entries based on AIML and the entry by James above. Don Patrick usually enters and I would think Bruce Wilcox will have a Chatscript bot in there. Daniel Burke usually enters and I dare say Tom Joyce will have sent something wild and wacky in.

I entered a new bot at the last minute.

Moderation request:

Contrary to the popular viewpoint here, there are legit reasons for remaining anonymous. Please advise if that forum policy has been changed.  Otherwise, kindly, edit the personally identifying information which has not made available in my profile, from this thread…  And delete this post right after reading.

Most educators, especially Technology Education,  when all classes are counted up, easily give out enough grades each week to fill every seat in a large auditorium, several times over.  All it takes is for one to show up asking about grades and its… GAME OVER. 

Thanks.

Merlin - Aug 1, 2014:

I entered a new bot at the last minute.

He, he… Hee!  Ditto!

Thank goodness for Don’s post above about the dropbox!

Got mixed up with the dates, and very nearly missed the deadline. 

However, made it in last minute… Just got the email confirming receipt.

∞Pla•Net - Aug 1, 2014:

Moderation request:

Contrary to the popular viewpoint here, there are legit reasons for remaining anonymous. Please advise if that forum policy has been changed.  Otherwise, kindly, edit the personally identifying information which has not made available in my profile, from this thread…  And delete this post right after reading.

Most educators, especially Technology Education,  when all classes are counted up, easily give out enough grades each week to fill every seat in a large auditorium, several times over.  All it takes is for one to show up asking about grades and its… GAME OVER. 

Thanks.

First off, Tom, everyone who visits here on a regular basis knows exactly who you are, and the “personally identifiable information” you speak of exists within many posts, in other threads, scattered all over this website. I’m not going to go through every single post in every single thread here just to remove said information, when it’s readily available in other places such as Chatbot Battles, the CBC, and other places that deal with chatbots. A simple Google search will provide the very information you want to hide, so the effort to benefit ratio is a bit high, don’t you think?

Secondly, making requests of this nature generally tend to draw even more attention to the information that you wish to have removed, so generally have a much more negative effect than you might wish.

And lastly, why are you so keen to keep your name out of public awareness, anyway? You’re not planning to take over the world (again), are you?

∞Pla•Net - Aug 1, 2014:

However, made it in last minute… Just got the email confirming receipt.

Tom - Did you manage to upload your entry before 5pm UK time? You made this post over 2 hours after the deadline. If you only just received the email, your entry may not have been received in time.

Dave Morton - Aug 1, 2014:

Everyone who visits here on a regular basis knows exactly who you are, and the “personally identifiable information” you speak of exists within many posts, in other threads, scattered all over this website. I’m not going to go through every single post in every single thread here just to remove said information, when it’s readily available in other places such as Chatbot Battles, the CBC, and other places that deal with chatbots. A simple Google search will provide the very information you want to hide, so the effort to benefit ratio is a bit high, don’t you think?

Dave, 

There is practically no comparison to the level interaction on chatbot contest websites.

Google says you just have to click and edit button seven times,
but I just asked for this thread to be edited.

Google:  site:chatbots.org “{real name}”

7 results (0.21 seconds)

Dave Morton - Aug 1, 2014:

Secondly, making requests of this nature generally tend to draw even more attention to the information that you wish to have removed, so generally have a much more negative effect than you might wish.

Not if deleted right after reading as requested.

Dave Morton - Aug 1, 2014:

And lastly, why are you so keen to keep your name out of public awareness, anyway?

There are two types of public awareness. Public license and public leisure. They don’t tend to mix very well. News corporations, for example, have policies against their employees posting to public outlets.  You really should know that as a forum adminstrator, in case you ever have a member of the press join as a forum member. That is great publicity for the forum! A mechanic, may not like customers asking for free auto mechanic advice during his public leisure time, but that is minor compared, for example, to a teacher with hundreds of students asking about classwork or homework, because there are usually be negative consequences involved, such as a bad grade. 

Do not take any offense by anything said here.  This is just a direct to the point response with no smilies. When you have a chance, please click the [x] button on this post too.  Thanks.

I just received confirmation that my submission was received by the required time. So I at least made it that far lol.

I wish everyone who has entered the best of luck! 

What happens after the qualifying round?  There is nothing to say at this point that I will even make it to the qualifying round as there could be problems with the install etc.  However I am curious about what happens for those who do qualify.

From previous years , I would assume the following:

1 - Exeter test that the entries submitted on time work
2 - They contact the botmasters if there are any problems
3 - They ask the chatbots 20 or so questions based on the templates from previous years.
4 - They publish the questions/replies from the bots
5 - Week commencing 22nd Spetember - They announce the 4 finalists for the live event
6 - You have until November to further develop your bot
7 - November 15th - The live event at Bletchley Park

If you have received confirmation that you submitted in time, you are already in the qualifying round (assuming your bot works and conforms to the rules)

Steve Worswick - Aug 1, 2014:

∞Pla•Net - Aug 1, 2014:

However, made it in last minute… Just got the email confirming receipt.

8pla - Did you manage to upload your entry before 5pm UK time? You made this post over 2 hours after the deadline. If you only just received the email, your entry may not have been received in time.

Steve,

(Stick to my nick: 8pla, so I ain’t gotta deal with up in arms posts by the moderator.)

He, he.. Hee!  Yikes… Didn’t do my LPC 2014 homework this year, so my grades may fall during the competition.  Thanks to Don, at least I get to compete in the UK for the first time.

Oh my, I just thought of a joke… 

(This funny fact is not intended seriously…)

Ha, ha.. Hah!  Technically (laughing out loud) ...

The last time I played the LPC, in 6th place:

It can be said that, 8pla, once beat the current Loebner Prize Champion. 

Whoo hoo!!!

I do worry about my bot installing correctly.  It installs from the web perfectly.  However to install from a different media my program as the location of the data files, which I explained in my cover letter is contained in the install directory.  Will they follow that direction, I can only hope.  My level of confidence is much higher from the web install since all that is required is the user click download and run.

Steve Worswick - Jul 31, 2014:

Out of curiosity, can I ask who has entered?

I have entered my bot Johnny by the drop-box and I have received a confirmation e-mail. Good luck to all.

Hi James, I think they will follow anything reasonable.

One year, people were expecting the organisers to start setting up virtual machines, installing and configuring SQL, Linux etc and it got a bit out of hand. Since then, they rules have changed to say the running of the bots must be a lot more simple.

If your covering letter explains how to run the bot and it’s not too complicated then I don’t think you will have any issues. I’m sure they will get back to you if they have any difficulties though.

Dave: Although I could go “haha, shoe’s on the other foot now” about 8pla’s taking freedoms with one’s names, I’m not that kind of person and in my opinion removing the two instances in this topic is a reasonable request which I expect a moderator to respect. Prior to this I was blissfully unaware of said person’s name and so could not send my killer robots after him. I hope people will treat my real name with similar discretion, to deminish the likelyhood of angry mobs appearing on my doorstep, even if it can never be prevented completely.

Back on topic: Despite my particularly critical nature, so far I have good faith in the capabilities of Dr. Ed Keedwell, as he has proven to be punctual, consistent, moral, professional and considerate. If it’s just a “the file is over there” instruction, I’m sure they’ll manage.

September 22 is a bit of a long wait, so I’ll be resuming work that benefits my AI outside of the loebner prize. It’s remarkable that the day after these… trivial concerns, I woke up with another reasoning method in mind that would, more coincidental than intentional, be able to deduce whether stabbing someone with a towel would hurt. I have missed thinking at that level.