Getting Started
How much does it cost?
How do I sign up?
How do I set up the bot?
Can my bot "learn" from what people say to it?
What are the stars in the message board for?
What are the commands I can send my bot?
What are the current system calls?
How often is the Most Chatty list Updated?
What is a module?
What is iPounce?
Errors
I can't get my bot to work!
When I try to run the program, a black screen pops up
and then closes right away.
It says "Can't find main class. Program will exit!"
It says "Bad command or file name."
I keep getting ERROR IN REPLY MODULE. What's going on?
My control panel is gone!
My bot keeps saying "blocked -or- no reply".
My bot will only say "no reply" to some of
my users.
It says "Connecting to AOL server....Connection
Closed."
I can't invite my bot to a chat room!
I get the message "Sorry, an error occurred while
processing that".
I get an error saying "This bot is not registered,
please register at runabot.com"
My bot does not recognize me as it's master.
I imported a mod, and it disapeared when I published
my replies.
I can't get my bot to work on MSN.
I changed something in Edit Settings but my bot does not
recognize them.
My problem still isn't solved, what should I do?
How Do I....
How do I get a system call to work?
How do I remove the ad from my profile?
How do I make my own modules?
How do I make my own replies?
How do I delete a reply?
How do I change a reply to something else?
How do I change something the bot says be default?
How do I import a module?
How do translations work?
How do I stop people from warning my bot?
How do I lower my warning level?
How do I unblock someone once they've warned my bot?
How do I get my bot well-known?
How should I NOT advertise my bot?
How do I invite my bot to a chat room?
How do I make my bot talk in a chat room?
How do I delete moy bots log or download it to my computer?
How do I host my own bot servers? Can I get the source
code to ALICE?
How do I get my bot on Yahoo!?
MyTheme.com FAQ
Image file size is too big.
Image dimensions are too big.
Everything looks fine on the site, but nothing shows up when
I download my theme.
Why cant others see my theme?
What is a cookie?
How do I make a new smiley or sound set for my theme?
Where can I see the themes I've made?
[Top]
How much does it cost?
It's completely free! There is a premium bot service with added features and
benefits, but aside from that, the basic service is
completely free.
How do I sign up?
Go to Create a Bot. In the "Register"
fields, put your email in the email field, then select a
password, then verify the password by placing it again. Click
"Register Now". NOW - Go to your email program and
wait for the verification email. Click on the link that comes
to your email address. Wait for the confirmation message to
appear. Once it appears, you will be taken to the download
page. If you haven't already, you can download the complete
software to install your bot.
How do I set up the bot?
Go to aim.com and
register a screen name for your bot. Your bot should contain
the letters "bot" in it somewhere to avoid
confusion. Be sure to remember the password you used to
create your bot, and once you've created the screen name,
don't use it to chat with other users yet. Once you have the
screen name confirmed by AIM, you're ready to start Sign on the bot.
How do I Sign On the Bot?
From your bot Control Page, find the link to
"Signon AIM". You will need to set the AIM password if it's your first time through.
Your bot will only stay on for a little while if no one is talking to it. type "/Status"
to find out how much longer it will stay on.
Advanced users can Download a program and run the bot themselves.
Can my bot "learn"
from what people say to it?
There are two types of artificial intelligence. One is the kind that learns
from people. This is faulty, because there's no way of knowing if the person
teaching the robot is telling the truth. The other is emulated artificial
intelligence. Your bot knows only what you yourself program it, but because
you're the one programming it, you know your information can be trusted. The
short answer, no.
What are the stars in the
message board for?
You get a post for each reply you post. As you post more
messages, your rank will increase. That does not mean you
should SPAM the message board.
Newbie- 0-20 posts
Junior- 21 posts
Full- 41 posts
Senior- 101 posts
God- 301 posts
What are the commands I can send my bot?
- View the list of commands here.
How often is the Most Chatty list Updated?
Once a week, on the weekends I believe.
What is a module?
Modules are a set of AIML replies grouped together to perform a specific task.
What is iPounce?
iPounce allows one user to send messages
to other users via your bot. It also can send messages to offline users, and
the offline users will recieve them when the log on (as long as your bot is
on too)
I can't get my bot to Sign On!
Make sure that you are using the correct screenname and password that
you used when signing up for the screenname at AOL.
I keep getting ERROR IN REPLY
MODULE. What's going on?
One of three things has happened here. 1. Either you installed or created
a module with an error in it, which you can fix by deleting the module or
the reply with the buggy response. 2. You may be talking to your bot while
publishing replies, just wait a minute and try talking to your bot again.
3. Less commonly, there may be a larger error which can only be fixed by the
runabot staff. Email your need to support@runabot.com, or post a message on
the runabot.com message board.
My control panel is gone!
FIRST, make sure you're signed into runabot.com. You can tell
for sure by clicking on "Create a Bot" on the main
page. If it says you already have a bot, then you're signed
in. However, it means there's been a critical error in the
database of your bot, and you need further support. Send a
message to the message board, or go to the
feedback page .
My bot keeps saying "blocked
-or- no reply".
If a user has ever warned a bot, it will prevent all the bots
from talking to them, so whenever they say something to your
bot, it will give the same message, "blocked -or- no
reply". At times, however, the database of your bot will
get overloaded and you'll see the same message for ANY user
that IM's your bot. For help on this matter, go to the feedback
page.
My bot will only say "no
reply" to some of my users.
This is most likely caused by a module. Look through the
replies in the module for a command to exit the topic.
I get the message "Sorry,
an error occurred while processing that".
This was an internal error on the server, not on your end. We'll call it a
"burp"...
I get an error saying "This bot is not registered,
please register at runabot.com"
That is most likely because the screen name you made for your bot does
not match the one you supplied to RunABot. Go to the edit settings section of the control panel and make sure
the screen name field matches your bots screen name.
[Top]
My bot does not recognize me as
it's master.
The bots like to fool around with you. Some times you may
say "I am your master" and it may reply "No,
only <masters sn> is my master." If this is the
case, it's not a problem. Live with it or create a custom
reply. Other times you may have an error in the master screen
name field in the edit settings section of the control panel.
I imported a mod, and it
disapeared when I published my replies.
After you import the mod it will take you to a page that
says: 18 replies added to mod .....
Click on the name of the module to continue, you will then be
taken to the mod folder with all of the custom replies it
contains. Scroll down and look on the left for RENAME MOD.
Add a 1 to the end of the mod title and hit rename. The
folder should now appear on the left hand side of your
screen, then you can publish and they should work fine.
I can't get my bot to work on MSN.
1. Create an e-mail address for your bot at www.hotmail.com
2. Add the e-mail address to your aliases in the control pannel (if you do
not have premium, you may not have aliases)
3. Run the WCRobot Progam and enter in your bots e-mail address and password.
4. I do not believe that the Newest version of the WCRobot program works with
MSN. Go here and follow the instructions for an older version. http://www.infoblvd.net/3harvs/bot/botweb.html
5. In order for MSN users to be able to talk to your bot, you must manually
add their e-mail address to your bots list. Just sign onto the MSN program
with your bots e-mail and password, add the addresses, wait for your friends
to accept the addition, and viola...you're good to go.
I changed something in Edit Settings but my bot does
not recognize them.
In order for your bot to recognize any changes made in the edit settings section
of the control pannel (Ex. Change of Masters SN, Bots SN or Bot Likes) you
must restart your chat runner. To do this: Completely close the program, and
then re-open it.
My problem still isnt' solved,
what should I do?
Post a detailed description of your problem, along with
everything you have tried to solve the problem on the Tech Support board.
How do I get a system call to work?
In your bot reply, just place the system tag as follows: <system>NAME</system>.
What are the current system calls?
Currently, there is EMAIL,
WEATHER, LIVEWEATHER,
CALCULATE, DATE,
FORTUNE, SEARCH,
TRANSLATE,
FIGLET,
DEFINE, HANGMAN,
CRAPS,
FUTURAMA, CALVIN, XFILES, STARWARS, IPOUNCE,
ELIBS,
LOG,
WORLDNEWS and RANDOM.
To see how to use these system calls go to System Calls Page.
[Top]
How do I remove the ad from my
profile?
With the free version, you can't. However, there is a premium pay service that does not have ads.
How do I make my own modules?
Go to your control panel, then click on CUSTOM REPLYS and
MODULES. On the left side of your screen, you'll see the
names of your modules. To add a new module, simply put the
name of the new module in the "Add Module" field,
then click "Add".
How do I make my own replies?
From the same CUSTOM REPLYS and MODULES page, click on the
name of the module you want to add the reply to on the left
side of the page. Then, above the module box, click "Add
Reply". In the "Someone asks" field, you will
put in what the user should say to get the bot to say what
you want it to say. In the "Bot Reply" field,
you''ll put what the bot will say. For Example: Someone Asks:
How are you? Bot Reply: I am fine! This will look like the
following in a AIM message box: USER: How are you? YOURBOT: I
am fine!
How do I delete a reply?
Find the reply you made on the module page. Click "delete"
to the right of the reply.
How do I change a reply to
something else?
Find the reply you made on the module page. Click "Modify"
to the right of the reply.
How do I change something the bot says be default?
In your log, which you can find on the main page of your
control panel, you'll see the words "FIX REPLY" to
the left of any reply your bot gives. Simply click on that,
and you'll go to the modify reply screen. Fix this reply,
select the module you want the new reply to go in, and click
"SAVE". Alternately you can create a TRANSLATION.
How do I import a module?
From the NEWEST MODULES page, find the module you
want to import. Then, on the right side of that page, click
"Import [modulename]".
How do translations work?
Translations replace a word or phrase that is "built-in"
with a word or phrase of your own. For instance, if you want to add a British
accent to your bot, you'd translate "color" into "colour".
How do I stop people from warning my bot?
Unfortunately, once your bot talks to another user, that user can warn your
bot. There is no way to stop this; however, we are taking every possible step
in making sure those who warn the bots are globally blocked so they can't
do it again. Be sure to watch your output window for these users and report
those you think are doing it anonymously.
[Top]
How do I lower my warning
level?
Only time will lower your warning level. To prevent it from
going any higher, log your bot off (or, log it on AIM and
don't talk to users that IM it). After a few hours, your
bot's level will eventually drop back down to 0%.
How do I unblock someone once
they've warned my bot?
E-mail their screen name and an explanation of why they warned your bot to
support@runabot.com. If they do not appear in the logs as noticeable abusers
of the bots, they may be unblocked by the administration. This process, however,
may take place only once. Or just post on the UNBLOCKING USERS topic on the message board. If they warn
a bot more than once, they're blocked for good.
How do I get my bot well-known?
The most common way is to invite your bot to a chat room. It
won't "spam" the room, because the bots only talk
when talked to directly, or when greeting a user it has never
met before. Also, you can go to other sites that know you and
mention you have a bot. Naturally, you'll want to tell your
friends that you have a bot, and if it's a good bot, they'll
tell their friends, and so on.
How should I NOT advertise my
bot?
Do not randomly IM people with your bot. Do not tell people
about your bot on runabot.com. Do not tell people about your
bot on other message boards unless that board already knows
you. Do not do anything with your bot that would intrude on
others privacy or spam another's web pages, email, or
newsgroups.
How do I invite my bot to a
chat room?
First, make sure you reformat your screen name to all lower letters and no
spaces, otherwise your bot won't recognize you as its owner. To do this: Go
to My AIM on your buddy list, hit edit options, and format screen name. Make
your letters lower case and remove all spaces. Then, invite it to a chat the
same way you would any user on AIM.
How do I make my bot talk in a
chat room?
You must say your bots FULL SCREEN NAME in lower case, don't use CAPS
in order for it to recognize it's being talked to. For example, I would say:
"theharvinatorbot: Say Hey" and my bot would reply with "hey".
How do I delete my bots log or
download it to my computer?
Go to the control pannel and hit full log. It will
take you to a page with part of your bots logs. Hit download
full log to download the log to your computer and clear it
form the internet.
How do I host my own bot servers? Can I get the source
code to ALICE?
Simply go to www.alicebot.org and download the scripts to run your own servers.
However, Runabot does not share its source code, so you'll need to find the
applicable scripts on alicebot.org and use it to create your own code. In
addition to this, there are other sites on the Internet which offer bot servers
for steep, but fair, prices. Don't expect any help on hosting your bot on
a server from RunABot users.
How do I get my bot on Yahoo!?
You need the yahoo runabot beta client: http://www.runabot.com/download/runabot-yahoo.exe
if you register the same name on yahoo as you do on aim it should work.But
remember, this is beta.
What do I do if I forgot one of my passwords?
For your RUNABOT.COM password:
http://www.runabot.com/cgi-bin/webcom/bot/control
Place your email address in the "validation email" section.
For your AIM password:
http://www.aol.com/aim/password.adp
For your YABB Discussion Board password:
http://www.runabot.com/cgi-bin/webcom/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=;action=reminder
REMEMBER - don't confuse the two passwords! The RUNABOT password is the password
you use to access this site. The AIM password is the password you use to log
on your bot!
