Scholastic Bowl bot

Alejandro · Post by **Alejandro** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 2:44 pm

Hello! I have recently created a Scholastic Bowl bot for IRC, but before I can release it, it needs more testing and more questions. The testing should be fine, but the questions are a big problem. Right now, the bot only has around 60 questions, all from our school's Student-Faculty games. The bot needs to have 100s or 1000s of questions in order to be useful. We would write questions for it except that we are writing questions for a tournament we plan to have this year, and the tournament has priority over the bot. I am wondering if there are any free Scholastic Bowl/Quiz Bowl/etc. question sets that I can use for my bot online. If there aren't any (or at least not any good ones), I am wondering if any of you could donate old question sets for the bot. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
-Alejandro

Stained Diviner · Post by **Stained Diviner** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 3:34 pm

Here, here, here, and, most of all, here.

Please tell me more about your tournament.

Tegan · Post by **Tegan** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 6:56 pm

ReinsteinD wrote: Please tell me more about your tournament.

If Naperville is planning on hosting an open tournament, there are a lot of people interested .... don't be holding out on us ..... any info you can.

Alejandro · Post by **Alejandro** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 9:09 pm

Thanks for the questions! It will help out a lot.
As for the tournament: it all depends on if we have enough questions by the end of the summer. The only detail about the tournament I can remember for sure is that we're plalnning to use film clips and music clips for some questions. I don't remember the rest of the details too well, but if you have any questions about the tournament please ask our coach at [email protected].

Thanks.
-Alejandro

Stained Diviner · Post by **Stained Diviner** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 11:16 pm

I just emailed him. I'll post here and/or the Illinois thread if I get a response.

Sir Thopas · Post by **Sir Thopas** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 11:26 pm

What server/channel will this be on?

Alejandro · Post by **Alejandro** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 1:19 am

Server: EsperNet (irc.esper.net, or if that doesn't work, cosmos.esper.net, anger.esper.net, discworld.esper.net)
Channel: #scobowl

If you want to go help test it out and make recommendations, go ahead. Keep in mind I'm still adding questions to the bot, and that the help website is only a temporary website until I can design a good one.

-Alejandro

dschafer · Post by **dschafer** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 11:30 am

Answering the questions in the channel:

Should there be computational math questions? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and most importantly, yes.

Should there be bonus rounds? This could go either way; I'd lean towards yes.

BuzzerZen · Post by **BuzzerZen** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 1:37 pm

dschafer wrote:Answering the questions in the channel:

Should there be computational math questions? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and most importantly, yes.

Dan, everyone knows computational math has no place in quiz bowl.

Alejandro · Post by **Alejandro** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 6:24 pm

I'm usually not one to resurrect dead topics, but I figured that I could kill two birds with one stone.

1) The bot has gone through a few changes, and it now uses regular expressions for answers and it is pretty stable. Someday soon I will release the source code so people can find bugs/modify it. Right now it has about 700 questions, and people seem to enjoy it. If you want to check it out, just go to EsperNet and join #scobowl. Once again, thanks for all of the questions.

2) Assuming we have enough questions, the Naperville Central tournament should be on October 21st.

Thanks.
-Alejandro

Trevkeeper · Post by **Trevkeeper** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 10:22 pm

Ultima is October 21st. Just letting you know. You can view the calendar for the year here.

Alejandro · Post by **Alejandro** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 10:57 pm

Trevkeeper wrote:Ultima is October 21st. Just letting you know. You can view the calendar for the year here.

Well, it was either that or November 11th, and it looked like every place had a competition that day. What is the Loyola Ultima?

-Alejandro

Stained Diviner · Post by **Stained Diviner** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 11:00 pm

Loyola Ultima is for the top teams in the state. For the past few years, it has drawn nine teams by invitation only. Mr. Riley is talking about expanding the field to sixteen teams this year.

Unfortunately, good dates are hard to find. If you have it October 21st, New Trier is going to Ultima. If you have it November 11th, New Trier is hosting Scobol Solo.

Trevkeeper · Post by **Trevkeeper** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 11:22 pm

Alright, I'll play dumb: Can someone give me (a rather computer illiterate person) a step-by-step manual of how to get on this server and play?

Stained Diviner · Post by **Stained Diviner** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 11:38 pm

Carlo said that he would update the instructions at aegisquestions soon. Basically, download an IRC player, run it, connect to Espernet, and type in the channel #scobowl.

Alejandro · Post by **Alejandro** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 11:45 pm

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Get an IRC client (for example, mIRC or xChat)
2. Set your server to EsperNet (irc.esper.net, or if that doesn't work, cosmos.esper.net, discworld.esper.net, or anger.esper.net)
3. Connect to the server
4. Join #scobowl (/join #scobowl in most clients)
5. Read the rules and play!

Trevkeeper · Post by **Trevkeeper** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 1:53 am

The bot is very good.

EricLeMaster · Post by **EricLeMaster** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 7:53 pm

The bot is very nice. Well done! :)

rajudragon · Post by **rajudragon** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 11:48 pm

a little repeititive in questions but overall very well done. Also I think there should be a donation of questions to this project to make it even better.

leapfrog314 · Post by **leapfrog314** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 1:43 pm

More detail about downloading IRC clients:

If you have Windows, I suggest X-Chat. Don't use the official Windows download, that costs money. A legal, free Windows build can be downloaded as an MSI installer, or if the MSI doesn't work (i.e. you have an unpatched version of Windows 95 or 98) then use the ZIP version.

If you have Linux, you probably already know how to use IRC. Otherwise just download the free version of X-Chat at http://www.xchat.org.

As has already been stated, you then add the EsperNet server and its addresses, and join the #scobowl channel. It should be obvious what these instructions mean once you open X-Chat.

thepowerofche · Post by **thepowerofche** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 11:06 pm

Um. When does it start asking questions? I idled for about an hour a couple days ago around 2:00 PM EDT with nary a peep in the channel. Just wondering if there was like downtime or whatnot about the bot.

Trevkeeper · Post by **Trevkeeper** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 11:13 pm

You've got to type in !start and then !join home or !join away. If no one else is there, hit !dummy away (if you are on home team, if you are away team, hit !dummy home).

leapfrog314 · Post by **leapfrog314** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 12:15 am

Yeah, as Alejandro has mentioned, the current documentation is always available at http://www.aegisquestions.com/triviabot. The bullet points at the top are a good introduction, and you probably don't need to read further.

P3nguinP0wered · Post by **P3nguinP0wered** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 9:10 pm

Hey, is there a place where we can submit questiosn too? and also some guidelines?

Alejandro · Post by **Alejandro** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 10:26 pm

You can send questions to [email protected].
Guidelines:

-Include a minimum of 3-4 clues in your questions.
-Avoid questions that could be answered in many different ways.
-Avoid having sentences in a question that are more than 200 characters long.
-Don't make questions on really obscure topics.

Although not necessary, it would be extremely helpful if you formatted questios beforehand. The way questions are formatted is:
Category;;Question;;Answer
If you want to mention that part of an answer is optional, please put it in parentheses.

Thanks.
-Alejandro

David Riley · Post by **David Riley** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 12:47 am

With all due respects, obscure is in the mind of the beholder.

P3nguinP0wered · Post by **P3nguinP0wered** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 2:17 am

Is there suppose to be a giveaway first or is it suppose to be pyramidal? And can you give me a sample of this "formatting"

Thanks a lot

Stained Diviner · Post by **Stained Diviner** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 11:06 am

Some formatted samples would be helpful, such as a list of five questions that includes at least one with allowed extraneous information and at least one with alternative answers.

This would be better if it had a few thousand questions. I think that there are currently the '04 and '05 Scobol Solo and a few rounds of the '03 MASER, which amounts to about 800 questions. It would be helpful for people to state here that they are going to format particular rounds and then email those rounds to Alejandro.

I gave links on the top of this thread for locating questions. For the Stanford Archive, you should probably stick to academic questions at the high school, community college, or juniorbird levels. If you're going to write your own, NAQT IS style and difficulty is probably what everybody wants. Be careful using questions found in other places, including PACE questions, unless you have permission from the source.

The bot doesn't do bonuses, and it has trouble with computations unless everything is an integer without units.[/url]

Alejandro · Post by **Alejandro** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 4:58 pm

So far I have:

New Trier Scobol Solo '04 and '05 (complete)
Naperville Central Student-Faculty '04 and '05 (complete)
2004 Delta-Burke Invitational (incomplete)
2003 MASER (incomplete)
One of the New Trier Student-Faculty sets

Decimals can now be accepted as answers, and questions can be written with decimals. Beware of ellipses and abbreviating names/associations with periods, though.

Sample questions:

Computational Physics;;Give units.What strength resistor should be added to a series circuit that already has a twelve volt battery, a one ohm resistor, and a two ohm resistor so that it will have two amperes of current?;;3 Ohm(s)??
Literature;;Which poet was born in Idaho in 1885 and died in Italy in 1972? His works include Homage to Sextus Propertius and Canzoni. He helped many modern writers and for a time worked as William Yeatsâ€™s secretary. Name this writer who was charged by the United States with treason and was forced to spend twelve years in a psychiatric hospital. Most of his work consists of 117 Cantos.;;(Ezra) Pound
World History;;The invaders lost this battle because they did not use distance weapons, they were afraid that their captured loot would be raided, and Abd er-Rahman died. The defenders kept their formation and were unified after Eudo swore loyalty to Charles Martel. Name this battle which took place in Western France in 732 AD.;;(Battle of) (Tours|Poitiers)+?
Architechture;;His eponymous window is a central pane with a round arch flanked by two square-topped windows. Trissino convinced him to adopt his famous name and got him a first commission. He reconstructed the basilica of Vicenza in 1545 and incorporated Mannerist elements into many churches, including San Giorgio Maggiore. His Four Books of Architecture described ancient monuments and were translated into many languages. He was most famous for many town houses and villas, especially a four-sided one with Ionic columns and a domed central hall. For ten points, name this Italian who introduced Roman architecture to the modern world and made the Villa Rotunda.;;(Andrea) Palladio|(Andrea) (di) Pietro

Explanations:
The answers are used as regular expressions. Anything put in parentheses with a space after it makes that part optional, unless it is in the last part of the answer. If the object in parentheses is at the end of the sentence, like in the first question, put ?? after the parentheses to make it optional.
If you want to have alternate answers, separate them with the | character, like in the fourth question (between Palladio and Andrea). If you want to take into account different spellings, like oxidation and oxidizing, you can do something like oxid(ation|izing)+?. The +? means that the contents in the parentheses are necessary.
If you still have questions about how to format a certain question/answer, feel free to ask.

Thanks.
-Alejandro

conker · Post by **conker** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 12:56 am

I've played on the bot a few times, and I must say that t's very very good. However, it's obvious that some people have already seen all the questions, and even for the people who haven't played it that much, there are repeats.

I think that maybe one of these weekends you guys could organize a mini-tournament and we could play on a fresh packet from the Stanford Archive or something. That way we'll have more players on at the same time, and the questions will be new to everyone.

Irreligion in Bangladesh · Sun Aug 06, 2006 2:03 am

At this point, for many top players, "fresh packet from Stanfords" is an oxymoron. It'd be very nice to get a fresh packet as a tournament, but the Stanford Archive is not the place to stage any form of competition.

P3nguinP0wered · Post by **P3nguinP0wered** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 3:49 am

Also, it might be helpful if you had a web submission thing on your website where people can enter a question number and comment on anything wrong with it.

conker · Post by **conker** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 9:32 am

styxman wrote:At this point, for many top players, "fresh packet from Stanfords" is an oxymoron. It'd be very nice to get a fresh packet as a tournament, but the Stanford Archive is not the place to stage any form of competition.

Obviously it would not be a real competition, and getting a fresh packet would cost too much money/time for an unofficial friendly. I'm curious...how many high school students have actually played through the entire Stanford Archive? Playing a random college packet from there would certainly be better than playing the existing questions, which the biggest #scobowl enthusiasts, despite their good intentions, can answer on the first clue.