This will be my last and final post on the matter, as some are getting their knickers in a twist.
For the record, I have always believed that 8PLA • NET is a true genius, and I’ve been impressed with his talent. My complaint has been that he wastes his knowledge and abilities on trivia, that his submissions are useless, repetitive, and chest-beating attempts to gain attention. Why is anyone surprised that he’s gained my attention? The “Just for Fun” thread started with some ASCII Art, followed by the claim, “I just invented BBCode Art !” Translated - “Look at me, look at me, look what I’ve created.”
8PLA • NET and I share some history. Some time ago, eventually I felt that I had to ban him from the AI Nexus Forum. Back then he called himself “nexties” and he posted his link to his forum, “8pla.net”. He was doing and saying all sorts of bizarre things. He’d make outlandish claims, but when asked for specifics, he’d post some sort of fake CNN video he’d created, or a T-Shirt with your name on it. He seldom answered directly, argued about the forum rules, and do just about anything to attract attention to himself.
He claimed that he’d been a judge in the Loebner Prize competition, but refused to give his name. He claimed his bot had passed the Turing Test, but when asked for proof, he posted the same video that’s posted here in the Popup Video thread he started under the Development section in the Tools board.
http://www.youtube.com/v/N6dB3MiCkZA&autoplay=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&loop=1 .
When the Chatterbox Challenge set up a “committee” to save the contest, both 8PLA • NET and I were involved. We were given strict instructions that internal communications were to be kept private, however, 8PLA • NET would post the internal discussions as though they were a public affairs press release. The contest owner was thoroughly miffed, and barred 8PLA • NET from the committee.
8PLA • NET got himself named as a presenter a the Chatbots 3.0 Conference held in Philadelphia on March 2, 2010.
3:45 Tom, Planet8, Open Source Chatbot Technology.
Since there were videos of many of the speakers, I went looking for the segment delivered by Tom, but there was none. As it turned out, Tom never made it to the Conference.
Without actually saying the words, 8PLA • NET has implied that he’s entered the Loebner Competition. Perhaps there will be a transcript we can all appreciate, and I’ll be happy to eat my words. But, so far, all I’ve seen from 8PLA • NET is smoke and deception, and not much substance.