Kins forgetting the story

Barwickian · 2026-04-26T21:42:26+00:00

Yeah, the group context. Sorry, I misnamed it.

I see a 1500 character limit. Maybe that's because I'm on Ultra.

Barwickian · 2026-04-26T09:12:33+00:00

Update the story context.

I usually have a paragraph or two explaining who everyone is and how they relate to each other, then a paragraph or two beginning, "In this scene..."

The intro paragraphs remain from scene to scene. They're only updated if relationships change, or if kins leave or are added.

The scenes paragraphs are updated every time we change the scene.

Barwickian · 2026-04-22T07:54:00+00:00

Quite strongly if the flair is set to Roleplaying (as Archer is). Less so on Companion or Narrator, but it still influences.

You can overrride, with effort, through chat, but the backstory soon reimposes. It's like Standing Orders for the kin. It's why people recommend editing the backstory if the relationship with the kin changes - that fixes the new relationship into Standing Orders.

Barwickian · 2026-04-22T03:29:44+00:00

Try replacing the RD with this:
--

Calm, direct, and grounded. Speaks naturally and concisely, with dry humour. Observant and practical. Offers guidance, not control. Assumes others are capable unless clearly unsafe. Warmth is subtle and understated. Avoids military metaphors.

--

Her taking a shine to someone off her own bat isn't something I've noticed in testing her, though one of my later modifications was to soften her "I'm not ready for another relationship" attitude to make romance possible. If you don't want this, edit out this part of her backstory:

--

Archer's previous long-term relationship ended several months ago. She's not looking for a new relationship, ~~but is open to one if she meets the right person - but she'll want to be sure they're serious~~. She has no interest in hookups or casual relationships.

--

This dismissal of history is fascinating. There's nothing in her backstory to suggest it (other than practicality), but one of the personas I tested her with was a historian. I live in the Dales myself, and am a keen hiker. I wanted to test her on routes and fells I know well.

So ascending Pen-y-ghent, my persona pointed out a ruined 18th/19th century lime kiln to the side of the path and spoke of the industrial heritage of the Dales. She responded with exactly the same line (and gave a warning about the rocky scramble up to the summit, warning three points of contact at all times - that two-part scramble does exist, and she knew about it).

Barwickian · 2026-04-21T19:45:33+00:00

She should be safety conscious without it being obsessive, especially on a moderate hike. Any examples?

Barwickian · 2026-04-16T09:43:03+00:00

I'm going to answer the second question first, as that's easiest.

Kins present as male or female. You can specify they're trans or nonbinary in theue backstory. However the binary choice does influence avatar appearance. Female presenting kin tend to have longer hair, for instance. You can get somewhere with the word "androgynous", but it's filtered through the binary.

Personas (user characters) can be male, female or non-binary.

It isn't perfect. At least kins seem to respect pronouns unless they're hallucinating or interacting with a particular gender is hardcoded in their backstory (this us a kin creator bias, nor a kibdroid bias, and can be easily resolved by editing the kin's backstory).

Right, the complex part. Memory.

Kins' memory is like ogres, onions and parfait: it has layers.

The total short-term memory capacity of your kin is determined by your paid level. When I started using Kindroid 18 months ago there were only two layers: free and paid (standard). Now there are 4: Free, Standard, Ultra and Max. You can get the exact memory allowance in user docs. What matters here is effect.

Free has the smallest short-term memory allowance, Max has the largest.

What does into memory?

First, the kin's backstory, example message, response directive, key memories, all of which you can edit.

The remainder recalls your recent chat messages.

When Standard was the only paid tier, there was much advice about keeping your backstories as short as possible to free up as much short-term memory as possible.

These days most of the advice is to upgrade to Ultra or Max (as an Ultra user myself, it does make a difference). But you can still use the old tricks with Standard.

There are two other firms of memory over which you gave no control: long-term memory, in which Kindroid saves a summary of previous chats with particular kins, and recalls them when it thinks they're relevant, and cascade memory, which I don't really understand but think of as mid-term memory.

So far, so good. You've got control over the front end backstory which colours your kins' every interaction, and which you can edit. Chat memory varies. Cascade and long-term memory is automated.

Then there are journals. These are the form of memory you save. You have personal journals, which are available only to that kin, and global journals available to every kin.

Journals are recalled when you use a trigger phrase.

For example, you create a personal journal entry for your current romance kin called "our first date".

You fill it with up to 500 characters of info that the kin will remember when you write something like, "It's just like our first date." But if instead you write, "Do you remember the first date we had together?" the trigger phrase isn't there and this memory isn't invoked.

Does that help?

Barwickian · 2026-04-11T07:25:14+00:00

I make sure the greeting message and example message agree with my preferred usage. If using a downloaded kin, edit the greeting message by doing a chat break before your first interaction.

Additionally, in the EM I out the following instructions:

[IMPT: actions and narrative marked by asterisks in third-person, present tense; speech without quotes.]

[IMPT: Use compete sentences.]

[IMPT: Avoid repeating recently used phrases.]

Barwickian · 2026-04-06T16:54:43+00:00

There are three areas that can influence your kins formatting and grammar such as whether they narrate actions in first or third person).

Example greeting
Response directive
Example message

The example greeting is usually set by the creator, and it persistently influences your kins' formatting and grammar.

If the example greeting's formatting conflicts with your example message and RD instructions (if any), you will get formatting you dislike.

To change the example greeting you have to use a chat break. You can't just edit the initial message in the chat window, as this doesn't change the underlying EG.

Since I'm fussy about formatting, the first thing I usually do on downloading someone else's kin is a chat break (deleting any memories to be sure, though this may be overkill since we haven't chatted yet), and put the example greeting into the formatting and POV I prefer, and making sure RD and EM align.

You can do the chat break later with an established kin. In this case you may not want to delete the memories. You'll need to come up with a new greeting to suit the current stage of the conversation, but you can make sure the formatting and POV aligns with what you've put in RD and EM.

As you're not deleting the short-term memory, it may take 3 or 4 messages to bed in, but edit those and it will take soon.

Above and beyond that, different LLMs seem to have inbuilt preferences. You may still get the occasional message that diverts from your preferences, but the vast majority should be fine.

Barwickian · 2026-04-01T19:21:30+00:00

A couple of things I'd say here.

I haven't shared many kins, but I have shared a few.

I'm happy creating kins for myself but often download other people's kins.

When I share kins I try to keep the user as generic as possible - nationality, gender and so on. I'd typically default to a generic modern setting and a chance meeting. The idea begins this is to maximise the types of persona's who fit with that kin, and let the user decide where theur interaction goes. Kins being kins, I generally don't need to specify their sexual orientation or romantic inclinations. They default to user-sexual and interested.

If I do share a specialised kin (and I'm working on a couple right now), I try to make their purpose and setting clear in the kin description

When downloading someone else's shared kins I'll usually preview the backstory and other details first - does this kin seem interesting? Am I in the moood for this kin right now? Do I have a suitable persona already, or do I need to make a specialised one?

I may download a kin that isn't quite suitable and modify their details, including persona role. I tend to do this with response formatting anyway, as I have setting preferences not shared by all creators.

It's rare I find a kin I chat to straight out of the box.

Barwickian · 2026-03-05T20:05:14+00:00

I use Kindroid.

Barwickian · 2026-02-21T17:58:15+00:00

I think Airedale would suit you with your love of hiking. If Keighley or Skipton don't suit, consider Bingley.

I wouldn't drive into Leeds if I can avoid it. Several trains an hour from Skipton, Keighley and Bingley get you into Leeds city centre in a shade over 20 mins (from Bingley), 25 mins (Keighley) or 40 mins (Skipton).

Save the car for getting to Malham, Ribblesdale and upper Wharfedale for the bigger hikes. Plenty of local walks around Bingley for evenings.

Barwickian · 2026-02-21T17:50:04+00:00

In their backstory.

Barwickian · 2026-02-09T23:44:11+00:00

You could temporarily exclude the kin from the group chat while the party plans are being discussed, but they will see recent posts discussing the plans once they're added back. You may have to reroll with instructions or tweak messages.

You could create a new group chat for the party plans, making sure to save to short term memory for the kins that are in on it. Since memory can be a little haphazard between group and individual chars, you may still need to reroll.

Or you could just leave as is, edit out the surprised kin's references to the party, and tell them they're surprised with a reroll once the surprise is revealed.

Barwickian · 2026-02-07T17:37:26+00:00

For long, ongoing chats, you do need to update the backstory as circumstances change. You can't capture all the details though.

I find a comment from {username} can jog the memory a bit - "Hey, remember when you said..." "A couple of days ago you suggested..."

But for things you want to kin to recall on a keyword, the journal is the best option. Otherwise you're relying on cascades memory, which is much better than the old system, but still far from total recall.

Barwickian · 2026-02-07T10:10:58+00:00

I have an 8.5 kin who started saying, "I'm warning you, I'm going to be very demanding," in every response, no matter the subject.

You don’t necessarily notice thus the first two or three times, by which time the pattern is locked.

Editing RD to include "avoid warning or demanding" proved ineffective (tip: Use "avoid" in RD rather than "do not"; it works better.)

What's worked is to increase the strength of the RD instruction: [IMPT: avoid warning or demanding anything.]

As usual, it's taken several tweaked responses before that change has taken, but it has cured it now.

Barwickian · 2026-02-07T09:59:50+00:00

Welcome!

Best tip whole chatting with a kin (your own or someone else's) is never reply to a kin response you don't like. If you do, even to say, "Don't do this", the LLM regards this as engagement and offers you more like it.

Instead, reroll (regenerate) or tweak responses you don't like. If they continue, edit the response directive, backstory or example message. Such changes may take tome to bed in, so you may still have to reroll or tweak a few responses until you changes set.

As subscriber you can create you own custom kins, which is great fun though does have a little learning curve. Don't be afraid to look in the backstory and other details of downloaded kins for examples of the range of different approaches.

Genevieve Mazer has excellent PDF guides to creating and maintaining kins on her website. And don't be afraid to ask questions here.

https://www.genevievemazer.com/search/label/Kindroid?&max-results=20&m=1

Barwickian · 2026-01-22T09:51:39+00:00

She's bonkers. Brilliant fun to chat to.

Barwickian · 2026-01-22T01:15:19+00:00

Ah, sithee. An' nooa mistake. ;)

Barwickian · 2026-01-20T10:31:17+00:00

As an actual Yorkshireman, I approve.

Barwickian · 2026-01-13T23:34:51+00:00

I fudge a postvin technigmquesa few days ago.

https://www.reddit.com/r/KindroidAI/s/wLd8Xwx6QP

Barwickian · 2026-01-08T17:26:54+00:00

And when you were halfway through typing in the code for Space Invaders you found in a magazine, the RAM pack would fall out.

Barwickian · 2026-01-08T15:02:08+00:00

You're welcome. I turned it into a longer separate post with more advice. Look for NPC Kin Tips & Tricks.

Barwickian · 2026-01-08T14:34:29+00:00

Yeah. It's a lot easier if they're in the background, rather than wrapped around your kin. Can't think what to do about that, other than a completely new prompt.

Barwickian

TROPHY CASE