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General ICQza Help/FAQ
If you didn't find answer here - join Project Mail List and ask experts,
or view ICQza Mail-List Archive. Also check out IRCza FAQ
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| Q.: | Do I have to know AIML to operate ICQza ? |
| A.: | No, you don't have to know Artificial Intelligence Markup Language to run ICQza. Some level of knowledge in AIML would be beneficial but not required right now. |
| Q.: | I downloaded and installed ICQza. Where I can get new UIN ? |
| A.: | You should use your standard ICQ client to register new UIN. Visit ICQ Help Pages - My ICQ menu to learn how to do it. |
| Q.: | Do I need anything else to run ICQza? |
| A.: | Standard ICQ client may be handy (but technically is not required, because ICQza is ICQ-client itself). To run ICQza you will need to register UIN (see above). Standard ICQ client also useful to find new visitors for your Bot. |
| Q.: | I have UIN already - I use it with my standard ICQ-client. May I use it for ICQza ? |
| A.: | Technically you can do it, but keep in mind - only one ICQ-client with particular UIN may be connected to ICQ network at a time, so as soon you connect ICQza, your standard ICQ-client will drop the connection, or, as soon as you connect your standard ICQ-client, ICQza will loose connection and become silent. Bottom line - better use your "old" UIN with ICQ-client and register "new" UIN for ICQza. |
| Q.: | May I run Standard ICQ client and ICQza on my PC at the same time? |
| A.: | Sure - actually it's the best way to do it - communicate with friends and strangers by Standard ICQ client and keep ICQza running to entertain them. Of course you will have to have two UINs (see above). |
| Q.: | How I can explore behavior of ICQza ? |
| A.: | Use "Message to Bot" to send message to ICQza locally (ICQza will behave like it received message from UIN 000000), you can do it even without connection to ICQ network, or send messages to ICQza from your standard ICQ-client. |
| Q.: | I've got new UIN and entered UIN and password in "Login Options" Dialog. Am I connected? |
| A.: | ICQza will try to establish and keep connection to ICQ network if you switched on "Reconnect Automatically" in the same dialog. If not, you will have to press button "Reconnect". |
| Q.: | How do I know is ICQza connected to ICQ network or not ? |
| A.: | If ICQza is connected, the main icon (left top corner of the main window) turns green. You will also see word "Connected" in the right side of status bar. |
| Q.: | What is "Web Presence" ? |
| A.: | Web Presence allow your ICQza to show up in Active ICQza Bots Page. It will drive new visitors to your bot and your web-site. |
| Q.: | I still can't connect to ICQ network! |
| A.: | Try to use UIN you've registered for ICQza in your standard ICQ-client - it has more sophisticated diagnostics than ICQza. If something is wrong - you will see error message. Correct the problem and try ICQza again. Don't forget to switch your standard ICQ-client to "old" UIN. |
| Q.: | I think I'm behind a firewall. Does ICQza support proxy? |
| A.: | No, current version of ICQza doesn't support proxy. But if you can connect using standard ICQ-client without touching proxy settings, most likely ICQza will be able to connect as well. |
| Q.: | How I can invite my friends to talk to my ICQza? |
| A.: | Tell your friends to contact to UIN of your ICQza by there standard ICQ-client and ICQza will reply, or simply send ICQ-contacts of your friends to ICQza, and bot will initiate conversation. |
| Q.: | How I can invite strangers to talk to my ICQza? |
| A.: | Ask your friends to send there ICQ-contacts to your ICQza. Find people with similar interests thru ICQ search or thru ICQ White Pages Search and use "Invite New Visitor" in ICQza. |
| Q.: | "Check if Invited User is Unique" in Bot Options - what is it for? |
| A.: | If you are going to invite total strangers and this option is On, the Bot will check is it already spoke with this UIN and warn you about it. It will prevent you from look silly or obnoxious when you send the same message twice to the same person. |
| Q.: | I configured ICQza to stay minimized to tray, but when someone contacts it ICQza pops up. What's wrong ? |
| A.: | Nothing is wrong, if you want to prevent such behavior of ICQza please uncheck "Activate Session on New Message" |
| Q.: | I clicked "Contact the visitor by Standard ICQ Client" - nothing happened! |
| A.: | Make sure your Standard ICQ Client is running. |
| Q.: | I know sometimes conversation between Visitor and ICQza is pretty funny :-) . How to publish it on my web-site? |
| A.: | Technically it's easy - select all in conversation log, copy to clipboard, past into MS World, save as HTML file - here you go.
But please remember about moral aspect of such an action.
People expect privacy, so we don't recommend to publish any kind of conversations.
If you going to do it anyway - please erase or change all details pointing on identity of the Visitor, such as name, nickname, UIN, etc.
We also strongly recommend to inform Visitor about presence of the Bot and possibility that the conversation will be recorded and published.
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| Q.: | Instead of Bot's answer I see something like "(Bot is not ready)". What happened ? |
| A.: | Well, most likely you modified AIML and something went wrong. Double-check your modifications, make sure all tags are closed. Recompile the Knowledge Data. If you didn't change anything - just Reconnect to ICQ network - problem will go away (old versions of ICQza have error causing this behavior) |
| Q.: | How I can customize ICQza ? |
| A.: | You can change AIML files (AIML stands for Artificial Intelligence Markup Language) and rebuild Knowledge Data of ICQza. ICQza is powered by A.L.I.C.E. bot. Read more at www.alicebot.org. Keep in mind - AIML is fun and it looks much easier than it sounds. |
| Q.: | How I can add new AIML files ? |
| A.: |
- Create new AIML file accordingly to specs or download ready one (see "Links and Resources")
- Put the file to AIML directory (usually C:\Program Files\ICQza\kb\aiml)
- Edit file C.AIML in the same directory - add new line containing name of your new file and save C.AIML
- Recompile Knowledge Data (menu|Tools|Recompile AIML to Data)
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| Q.: | I can't figer out how to change files "patterns.txt" and "templates.txt". |
| A.: | "patterns.txt" and "templates.txt" are data files created by compilation of ".ailm" files, all modification must be done thru ".aiml" files ! (see above) |
| Q.: | How I can change name of my Bot from Alice-ICQza to something I like better ? |
| A.: | Short version - in file defvars.txt (usually C:\Program Files\ICQza\defvars.txt) change variable "botname=Alice-ICQza" to "botname=WhateverYouLike". Keep it one word. Long version - again, read more at www.alicebot.org Please notice: Only new visitors will see new name of your Bot. To make new name visible for all visitors you will have to delete all files under
C:\Program Files\ICQza\kb\history\ |
| Q.: | What's the differences between ICQza and A.L.I.C.E configurations? |
| A.: | ICQza ignores file location directives of file alice.ini - it uses paths from dialog "Bot Options" instead. |
| Q.: | Shell I modify existing AIML files or create new ones? |
| A.: | It's up to you, but be careful and save copies of your original files. |
| Q.: | Can I use ICQza for online marketing ? |
| A.: | Sure. Look inside file "WakeMeUp.aiml" - it will give you an idea. |
| Q.: | I still didn't find the answer for my question... |
| A.: | Read ICQza Mail-List Archive. If you still didn't find an answer - join join ICQza Mail List and ask experts. Actually, we recommend to join Mail-List anyway. |
| Q.: | Here I see phrases about Web-Presence, Standard ICQ Client interaction, and other features, but I can't find them in my ICQza... |
| A.: | Well, maybe you just have old version of ICQza - check out ICQza Downloads. |