The Simon Laven Page

Chatterbot Central

Classic Chatterbots
Complex Chatterbots
Friendly Chatterbots
Teachable Bots
Non-English Bots
Alternative Bots

AI books from Amazon.com Chatterbot Papers The Filmstore: Classic AI movies on DVD and Blu-ray


Who is Simon Laven?
The Simon Laven Page > Friendly Chatterbots > BBSChat

BBSChat - by Matthew Probert

BBSChat was written by Matthew Probert and is a chat door system for a PC BBS. It is loosely based upon the BBS door Shampage by Rich Waugh of Drawbridge BBS - and Shampage response files may also be used with only slight modification by BBSChat.

Although Matthew had been developing computer conversation systems for a several years, he decided to clone Shampage because although it was good, he was frustrated by the limitations imposed by it which made it too obviously a computer: the logoff screen with its copyright message for a start.

Then BBSChat became more than just a clone. It became able to follow a thread with greater accuracy than Shampage, and it did not tell the user that it was a computer unless you asked it to.

Upon starting, BBSChat may display 'Paging' if the paging option is active in the configuration file, and there is then a randomly generated delay before the conversation commences by displaying one of the 'opening lines' selected at random. The user and the computer then take turns to present typed text to each other, like a conversation. BBSChat responds through replies contained in the configuration file which are selected based upon matching of key words and phrases in the users input with those contained in the data file.

Keywords are matched on a first come first served basis. So specific keyword phrases should occur at the start of the data file, with more general keywords towards the end. The results of the conversation are added to the end of the file 'chat.log' in the current directory.

Harry is the default personality that you get when you run the file Demo.Bat. To stop him from thinking you are Matthew Probert, refer to the enclosed file ChgName.Txt.

BBSChat can be downloaded here and is 92k in size.


Previous Chatterbot:
Yeti
This Category:
Friendly Chatterbots
Next Chatterbot:
Billy and Daisy