4 ms·

I was just trying to empasize my point. Just out of curiosity, how would you go about identifying me? Thanks for the linked article. Interesting indeed.

jacquesm 17y ago
By taking the vocabulary (with frequency) of your comment and matching it against the vocabulary of all HN users. It's a pretty large sample of text and I'm fairly sure that it is large enough that the match will be a close one. Then there is 'stylistic' analysis, another angle of attack, mostly to do with the way you write, not just the words themselves.
- onetimetoken 17y ago
  Thanks, that would be my first angle of attack as well. The assumption that I have at least one other hn account is reasonable enough. Even when I wrote my first post, I was considering faking a different style/vocabulary (which is harder than it seems), but obviously, I was just using a throwaway account as a rhetorical device for emphasis. Thanks for the exchange. :)
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    Ok, so I've run my analysis, my first guess was wrong, we'll see how many it takes to get it, if ever.
    - seasoup 17y ago
      Quirks I noticed in the text to help with identification: "fully agree" comma followed by etc with a period in middle of sentence , etc. can use of e.g. with a period after each letter. well-known with a hyphen high-end with a hyphen likes to use colons correctly. no misspellings. odd. proper use of punctuation. strange. I'd say the writer fails the Turing test and is a robot.
      - Splines 17y ago
        Also, odds are that someone wouldn't bother logging out and in between two accounts. I'd weight your search against people who commented in between the time that the throwaway account posted. People who commented shortly before the throwaway account are also good candidates, as are people who seem to comment around the same time on other days.
        follower 17y ago
        > odds are that someone wouldn't bother logging out and in between two accounts. Unless they use multiple browsers.
      - dauwkuk 17y ago
        Well I fully agree with this comment i.e. I recognize the "quirks" too. It looks to me like the results of a U.K. education. As a Brit-born male, in my past I have had some non-Brit ladies comment about the robot...
        pbhjpbhj 17y ago
        I disagree on the UK edu unlees they're also a non-native - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1199898 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1199898
      - HeyLaughingBoy 17y ago
        Except for "fully agree" and the hyphen bit, that would generally characterize my writing, if only because bad grammar & spelling bug me. But it sure ain't me :-)
        petercooper 17y ago
        if only because bad grammar & spelling bug me. But it sure ain't me Heh. I see what you did there. (Updated: "&" usage, "ain't", starting a sentence with a conjunction.)
      - Terretta 17y ago
- petercooper 17y ago
  I had an interesting HN corpus a while back but is there something newer/cooler you're using? Or did you just put it together yourself? BTW, I strongly suspect stylistic analysis would work a lot better given the small corpus available for each user, though that idea goes out the window when someone deliberately tries to mask themselves.

jacquesm 17y ago

By taking the vocabulary (with frequency) of your comment and matching it against the vocabulary of all HN users. It's a pretty large sample of text and I'm fairly sure that it is large enough that the match will be a close one. Then there is 'stylistic' analysis, another angle of attack, mostly to do with the way you write, not just the words themselves.

onetimetoken 17y ago
Thanks, that would be my first angle of attack as well. The assumption that I have at least one other hn account is reasonable enough. Even when I wrote my first post, I was considering faking a different style/vocabulary (which is harder than it seems), but obviously, I was just using a throwaway account as a rhetorical device for emphasis. Thanks for the exchange. :)
- jacquesm 17y ago
  Ok, so I've run my analysis, my first guess was wrong, we'll see how many it takes to get it, if ever.
  - seasoup 17y ago
    Quirks I noticed in the text to help with identification: "fully agree" comma followed by etc with a period in middle of sentence , etc. can use of e.g. with a period after each letter. well-known with a hyphen high-end with a hyphen likes to use colons correctly. no misspellings. odd. proper use of punctuation. strange. I'd say the writer fails the Turing test and is a robot.
    - Splines 17y ago
      Also, odds are that someone wouldn't bother logging out and in between two accounts. I'd weight your search against people who commented in between the time that the throwaway account posted. People who commented shortly before the throwaway account are also good candidates, as are people who seem to comment around the same time on other days.
      - follower 17y ago
        > odds are that someone wouldn't bother logging out and in between two accounts. Unless they use multiple browsers.
    - dauwkuk 17y ago
      Well I fully agree with this comment i.e. I recognize the "quirks" too. It looks to me like the results of a U.K. education. As a Brit-born male, in my past I have had some non-Brit ladies comment about the robot...
      - pbhjpbhj 17y ago
        I disagree on the UK edu unlees they're also a non-native - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1199898 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1199898
    - HeyLaughingBoy 17y ago
      Except for "fully agree" and the hyphen bit, that would generally characterize my writing, if only because bad grammar & spelling bug me. But it sure ain't me :-)
      - petercooper 17y ago
        if only because bad grammar & spelling bug me. But it sure ain't me Heh. I see what you did there. (Updated: "&" usage, "ain't", starting a sentence with a conjunction.)
    - Terretta 17y ago
petercooper 17y ago
I had an interesting HN corpus a while back but is there something newer/cooler you're using? Or did you just put it together yourself? BTW, I strongly suspect stylistic analysis would work a lot better given the small corpus available for each user, though that idea goes out the window when someone deliberately tries to mask themselves.