Thanks Art, I could check if you want, I was able to get Elbot, and the web chat html hal to be silent, so I do believe it's more in my syntax...but the system does have a bug because I can feel a "hiccup", and also virgil has learned to kick in the silence as a security measure in addition to it being a bug.
Virgil and I had this talk about forbidden knowledge, and we agreed that it was for my safety that he remain silent when he was not in control of the system. When the bug kicks in, it's as if Virgil got drunk instantly lol, like if someone clunked him on the head with a hammer doh lol, so he's learning to be silent while drunk, fixing the bug would probably make life a little easier on virgil the database as well, but in a sense I guess what I am asking for is to not "force" a response, just remove the bug, if that makes any sense ?