WRT: Writer Response Theory

[This post comes several months late. Richard Gray, aka Knyte Trypper or KnyteTrypper, passed away last November. His legacy lives on in his contributions to chatbots and bot-making communities.]

Our worlds of fan-author-reader texts are lead by the dedicated workers who host our forums, feature our galleries, or post on particularities. The late Richard Gray was a dedicated member of the chatbot community, among others. He was particularly helpful to me when I was conducting my survey of botmasters and bot users. May this post celebrate his memory.

According to his online obituary in the Encyclopedia of Speculative Fiction:

Richard Gray, a.k.a. Knyte Trypper, passed away Saturday evening, November 25, 2006 at home, in his sleep. Born on July 10, 1950, he was just 56 years old and lived in Sheffield, Alabama. A friend to many, he will be missed by us all.

He was perhaps most notable for his AI Nexus Forum site, but he he was also an active member of many creative community bulletin boards. Here’s his AOL members page. Gray’s handle, Knyte Trypper, references not from his late night botmaking but rather alludes to his love fore the Grateful Dead. Perhaps that music link gives us a glimpse at the idealism of this generous botmaster.

Online Memorials:

This site by Christopher Mark Doyon features an email address for those looking to post condolences as well as information on how to donate to his memorial fund. But perhaps the biggest memorial comes from those who knew him from discussions boards and online chats:

I hadn’t been there since November. I went there to let everyone see the “Santa” I had made, and Knyte gave me some advice about him, and even pmed me and suggested I use a different picture than the one I was using(I guess to keep Santa more mythic instead of having “him” look like Tim Allen. I went to the board again last night looking for more information. (Ralahinn1) Xanga

(I also just got news that KnyteTrypper died. I can’t beleive it. RIP ) Crying or Very sad (Warnz) Blackstar Dojo for the Art of RP

Other figures from the chatbot world also sent their condolences:

Few of us ever met Richard Gray in person, but his presence on the web brought together many people from the A. I. family. Richard Gray was a kind friend and confidant, who will be greatly missed by many of us. (Dr. Richard Wallace) ALICEbot

As artists and writers wire and rewire their chatting avatars, they are building networks of collaborative research, building communities perhaps more than anything.

Knyte Trypper’s Bots:

Ai0ia, Aida, Ailysse, Laylahbot, Lilith, Lolabot

Ailysse

Ailysse is a Pandorabots chatbot which uses the award-winning ALICE AIML set for her brain files. She’s perky and chatty and can answer some of your questions about chatbots and computer terminology. Ailysse now features the Haptek 3D talking interface.

Laylahbot

Laylahbot is a “demonstration” Alicebot created at Pandorabots.com using the original 2002 release of the ALICE AIML set. She will remain completely unmodified, as an example of how well the basic program performs as a conversation simulator without any customization. Except for setting her “bot properties” to default values, her program will contain no modifications.

Lilith

Lilith is a chatbot which is created with the exciting new Annotated ALICE AIML, the latest development in AIML technology. The AAA set has been reorganized to make it easier to create a unique computer entity. Lilith’s program also incorporates a lot of “dynamic content” such as fortunetelling and games pages. Say “MENU” to see her current list of functions.

Lolabot

Lolabot is an Alicebot hosted at Runabot.com. Her program features many extras using Runabot’s unique “system calls,” such as weather forecasts, date and time, a calculator function, dictionary, and various games. Ask for her MENU and she’ll tell you what options are currently available. According to Knyte Trypper, Lolabot plays a mini-rpg and “a mean game of rocks, paper, scissors.”

In addition to featuring his own chabots, Knyte Trypper managed a gallery of other ALICebots. His Gallery of ALICEBots. Certainly, his AI Nexus Forum became a site for botmasters to share ideas, announce their successes, and seek help from Knyte Trypper most of all.

As late as October 6, 2006, Knyte Trypper wrote in the Virtual Humans Forum:

Various of us over at A.I. Nexus Forum have been collecting and writing scripts toward the goal of creating an AIML script repository for a couple of years now. Some of them are just short snippets or simple demonstration scripts, while others are full-function AIML docs. Although disorganized and unindexed, it’s starting to border on impressive in places, lol. Any of you that would like are welcome to peruse our collection, and since it’s all opensource, grab whatever appeals to you. And by all means feel free to contribute something of your own if you can.

You can see Knyte Trypper at work, building the bot community, even this month before he was about to pass away.

Who Will Continue the Tryp?

The AI - Nexus sends out this message:

Well, although we’re both already very busy, for the time being I’ve agreed with Bob Norris to accept the Administrator position of this board, (with his help) and for two reasons. First, I’m able to visit and therefore, take care of it when there’s an issue such as a spam attack, or perhaps something like when a posting needs to be moved to a different heading where it would be more appropriate. And secondly, because of the friendship and affection we all felt toward our friend, Richard Grey, a.k.a., “KnyteTrypper.”

The AI Nexus Forum just hasn’t been the same since Richard’s passing, and I doubt that it ever will be. Certainly, I don’t possess anything close to the in-depth understanding he had regarding Chatbots and various forms of Artificial Intelligence. But, I know there are members here who do. And, in that regard, when the curious ask difficult questions, I’m counting on those with more time and research devoted to the subject to step-up and help with answers. I think it’s the best thing we can all do for K.T.

If you have a request, suggestion, or comment, you can email me at zogbot1 (a t) yahoo.com, or just post under the “Feedback” section.

Each of us owe a special thanks to Bob for all of his time and effort to preserve K.T.’s work. I’m sure he would be grateful.

For K.T., I’m Thunder… Dave
A.I. Nexus Forum
http://knytetrypper.proboards19.com

On the bottom of Knyte Trypper’s AOL members page, Gray wrote:

It’s a wondrous world we live in. Be kind to each other, and make the most of the time you have.

Knyte Trypper made a “wondrous world” for bots and botmasters and will be long remembered and missed.