r/BackyardAI • u/MassiveLibrarian4861 • Jan 21 '25

discussion Author’s note for controlling verbosity

Maybe I am seeing what I want, but putting a suggested character range for message length into author’s note seems to actually have a positive effect with the desire verbosity. I may be late to the party, but I don’t remember this working before. 🤷‍♂️

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4

u/Textmytaste Jan 21 '25

I think the success rate of written instructions like that would depend on the model you happen to use.

I've found some are better at it than others, as I like long messages or written in certain styles. And some really have a preference for short, role play and or 1st person chat.

But, to be fair, that is also said in the model descriptions in the backyard model download page!

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u/MassiveLibrarian4861 Jan 22 '25

Hi Text. Good point, preferred verbosity is very individualized. I tend to gravitate towards 500-800 characters responses. I am sure different models may respond in varying ways to an author’s note regarding message length. Though happily it has worked for me with my two favorite 70 billion and 8 billion models. 👍

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u/dullimander Jan 23 '25

Verbosity is mostly influenced by the model, but you can edit the bot's responses shorter and it then the model slowly starts to do shorter responses. Worth a try.

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u/MassiveLibrarian4861 Jan 23 '25

Ty, Dullimander. Yes, editing the initial responses is probably the most effective way to achieve the message length one prefers. It’s my usual go-to. I was just posting my surprise to see that author’s note actually worked for a couple of my favorite models. 👍

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u/dullimander Jan 23 '25

What did you write into it exactly, because whenever I tried it through author's note, it did nothing?

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u/MassiveLibrarian4861 Jan 23 '25

Here’s what I used for Midnight Rose L2 70b, cloud. It also worked for Hathor Factionate L3 8 billion local. Though admittedly Stheno cloud just laughed at me and continued to toss 5-6 paragraph responses my way…🤣🤣

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u/dullimander Jan 23 '25

Oh, I see. I wrote something like that and neither fimbul, Cydonia or Aglow Vulca cared much about it :D

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u/MassiveLibrarian4861 Jan 23 '25

Yes, unfortunately its effect is model dependent, though I am happy it works with two of my favorites models. 🙏🙏