[DemonRaven]

The older pandora bots site http://www.pandorabots.com/botmaster/en/home that has my chat bots on it already is now giving all kinds of errors to all my aiml files including the ones they have on their own server. I checked the aiml with a xml Validater  and there are no errors in the aiml files.

With the system giving compilation errors there is no way i can train and alter my chatbots at all.I am going to have to get my butt in gear and learn to program so i can ditch these companies.

[Data]

I gave up on pandora bots a few years back precisely for that reason, but I was only using a free account.

There are other AIML passers available, Program O springs to mind. How good the third party passers are though is debatable.

[Art]

I've really stayed away from those "Bot hosting" sites for a few reasons.

1) Free Hosting is often worth what you paid for it.
2) Their Servers are not My Servers under my control.
3) Their Secure Servers are not always and certainly Not always Backed-up as we've seen in the past.
4) Their Private Servers rarely are.

I want complete control of my bot on my local hard drive and in my home for all my development and experimentation.
Then when all is said and done, I'll find a trustworthy place from which to host my bot.

Then again, bots are a hobby for me...Not a business!

[squarebear]

All seems ok for me on the free server. What errors are you getting with your files?

[DemonRaven]

The errors vary day by day. Today it is behaving. Yesterday it was not. I find it frustrating when it fluctuates like that. It also makes me worry about the permanence of my chatbots. I would like them to survive me and yes i am old enough to actually worry about that stuff.

It is one of the main reasons i switched it all to a free site as if something happens to me it will still be there. Where as with a domain name and hosting that you pay for it vanishes when the money does.

[Art]

All the more reason to at least have and maintain a local copy or version of your bot. Lots of people have lost a good portion of their work through crashes. You should definitely have a current backup of your personal computer as well.

As inexpensive as some Terrabyte drives are, there should really be no excuse for not having a backup of your system.

[DemonRaven]

My memory is not the greatest so sometimes i forget to back stuff up then it gets lost. So yes i do have a excuse i am old lol.

[Art]

Don't feel badly. Most people have always been prone to "lock the barn after the horse was taken" or some such drivel.

Try this one..."Back up early and often!" 

[8pla.net]

Uptime may be like that sometimes, especially on free services.  When they become popular, (and, I think  Pandorabots is extremely popular) the number of free accounts, greatly outnumbers the number of paid accounts a commercial webhost may have.  So, a decrease in uptime on free services is to be expected.  It's only fair, Raven.  Meaning, technically it is normal, with so much increased network activity.  Nonetheless, I feel sympathy to hear about your situation.  So, let's discuss a few potential solutions!

First, I would suggest backing up your files to a few inexpensive thumb drives for safe keeping.  On the chance one of the thumb drives fails, (which is highly improbable if they are in storage) you have a redundancy.  Another option, may be to upload your files to a repository hosting service, like Github.

Here is one of my favorite free chatbot services, besides Pandorabots (which I also favor)...  https://www.botlibre.com   Bot Libre recently announced support for AIML 2.0  and, they got other cutting edge A.I. technologies too.  Please note: I have no affiliation, with Bot Libre, but I am keeping up on all the good news coming out of that project. Also, in online chats, Paphus at Bot Libre, seems very nice.

[DemonRaven]

Thanks for the tips i appreciate them.