I've called around to other Synchronet boards, and on most of them, the Guru
has been one of the least developed assets on the boards. This is a great
feature and I've thrown together this little text file with a copy of my
guru.dat file in the hopes that more people will start modifying their GURUs
and sharing the modifications that they've made. :)

Well, here's my GURU.DAT file. I've done a lot of work on it based on what
shows up in my guru.log file. Seems a lot of people think it's pretty cute
to cuss at a computer. :) I laughed my ass off the first time the GURU 
dropped carrier on someone for saying "fuck you you dumbass computer"!! :)
Soooo...I've got several sections for dealing with those kinds of people.
And if I do say so myself, some of the responses the GURU has are pretty 
damn funny. :) I've also got a section of Beavis and Butthead stuff in there
also... several of my users have gotten a kick outta that...

I've had a lot of fun trying to make him sound more Human. I call my
Guru "Wintermute" after the AI in William Gibson's Neuromancer. I also 
stuck a few references to other AI programs (ELIZA and Dr. Sbaitso) in there.

If you've not messed with your GURU.DAT file much.. here are a few pointers
that I can offer.

If you're going to use a word in more than one set of key words, put the
most specific example first. For Example:

(HEY&GURU&YOU&SUCK)
Oh yeah.. you swallow.. <plus however many responses you would want>

(VACUUMS&SUCK)
Hoover.. or whatever..

(SUCK)
huhuh.. huhuh. huhuhuhu.. you said suck... <etc and so on..>

If you put the (SUCK) line before the others, if you typed "Hey Guru, you 
suck!", it would pick a response from under the (SUCK) line, instead of the
(HEY&GURU&YOU&SUCK)line since that's the first instance that would fulfill 
the criteria/keyword that it was looking for.

2nd - you should move all of your (HELLO|HEY|WASSUP) or whatever your
"greeting" section to near the very end of your file. A lot of people will
start their sentences with "Hey!" as in "Hey! How can I get more credits".
If you have your "greeting" section near the front <and it has HEY as one
of the keywords> your Guru will look pretty dumb after he says "HELLO" or 
"HI" about 5 times in a row. 

3rd - The last section should have the heading of () which means that 
whatever the person typed didn't trigger any responses from all the other
keywords.. use this section to bait/steer people towards topics that you
have your programmed to respond to. If you pay attention to your guru.log
file, you can *really* run your users around in circles when they happen
to get into chat with the GURU! :) Great fun.. Be sure you don't put
other sections under your () section..

4th - The Guru is a great place to put help and info (especially if it's 
something your users are *always* bugging you about.. like more credits,
more time, where are the adult files, etc...) Anyway.. I think you get
the idea.. play around with the guru.dat file and tell your users to talk
to him. :) I've got some online help done in this file..

5th - Always keep a backup of your last working GURU.DAT file. 

6th - Test any new stuff you add to the file.  You can test your changes
 by going into chat with the guru, and if the () section is your last 
section, type something that would trigger a response from that section..
for example "ah83fncq". If you get a response, then there should be no
problems in the way you've got your previous sections set up.. if it does
not give you a response, you messed somthing up.. go back to the sections
you were editing and be sure that you've got all the parentheses and & and 
| signs where they need to be.. it's usually that you've left out a 
parenthesis somewhere... if you can't find it.. pick a section about 
halfway up the file and type something that would give you a response from
that section. If you get a response, the problem is somewhere below that
section. If you don't get a response, the problem is above it.. you can
use this technique to narrow down your search and eventually find the 
problem. Then, check to see if the guru will respond the way you want him 
to by typing something that *should* give you the new responses you added.
If it gives you a response from another section, see if the keywords for
your new section are also used as keywords for another section.

7th - All your words have to be separated.. you can't put (HEY GURU) it has
to be (HEY&GURU) or any of the other logic symbols that are appropriate..
all of your keywords must be in capital letters.. of course this is in you
SYSOP.DOC file.. hmmm.. be sure you read that section in your docs.. I'm
not gonna type out all that stuff again. :) 


Well.. that's all that I can think of for now. If you have any problems 
and/or questions, drop some Email to me on Vert - my alias is Wiccan..
or call my BBS - The Witch's Brew 919-942-3170

wiccan@vnet.net
