6 ms·

As a man named Tracy I would just throw out a caution to anyone thinking of using this. At this point in my life I don't really care about people calling Ms. T

As a man named Tracy I would just throw out a caution to anyone thinking of using this. At this point in my life I don't really care about people calling Ms. Tracy Platt. But what it does do is immediately signal that I don't really need to pay attention. Fake familiarity doesn't usually work too well. As a side note I would like to mention that having a girl's name does have some benefits. For example my wife can handle bank account issues over the phone for me. Also some near misses - I was assigned a locker in the girls locker room in junior high but they caught on before I could use it, and once a telemarketer called to offer me a spot in an all woman's resort spa. The only time I said yes to a telemarketer and I got rejected.

mst 13y ago
My full name is Matthew Stephen Trout. This means I can filter a substantial percentage of junk mail simply by throwing away anything addressed to 'Ms. Trout'. ... or Grout, Sprout, Trent or any of the other hilarious misspellings people also seem to manage. Less OT: Using such a thing to pre-select the probably-right option on a gender picker might be actually useful without the false selections causing the "fake familiarty" problem.
MartinCron 13y ago
I just checked the data file behind this project and Tracy shows up as both a male and female name. If I were to use this, I would only ever let the analysis "leak" to the end-user if it were extremely confident that it's a strong match.
rabidonrails 13y ago
Reading the last two sentence made me smile. Of course, the following must be mentioned: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/its-pat/n10133/ http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/its-pat/n10133/
nostromo 13y ago
Me and my significant other frequently impersonate each other when dealing with banks and hospitals over the phone (we're a gay couple). It honestly never occurred to me that straight folks can't get away with this. How unfortunate; it's quite a time saver!
- chadillac83 13y ago
  We can, it's just a little more tricky... example being while looking up plane ticket information for an S.O. I'm usually her "personal assistant".
- binarysoul 13y ago
  my experience is that the person on the phone usually doesn't care if you have all the relevant info

mst 13y ago

My full name is Matthew Stephen Trout. This means I can filter a substantial percentage of junk mail simply by throwing away anything addressed to 'Ms. Trout'. ... or Grout, Sprout, Trent or any of the other hilarious misspellings people also seem to manage. Less OT: Using such a thing to pre-select the probably-right option on a gender picker might be actually useful without the false selections causing the "fake familiarty" problem.

MartinCron 13y ago

I just checked the data file behind this project and Tracy shows up as both a male and female name. If I were to use this, I would only ever let the analysis "leak" to the end-user if it were extremely confident that it's a strong match.

rabidonrails 13y ago

Reading the last two sentence made me smile. Of course, the following must be mentioned: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/its-pat/n10133/ http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/its-pat/n10133/

nostromo 13y ago

Me and my significant other frequently impersonate each other when dealing with banks and hospitals over the phone (we're a gay couple). It honestly never occurred to me that straight folks can't get away with this. How unfortunate; it's quite a time saver!

chadillac83 13y ago
We can, it's just a little more tricky... example being while looking up plane ticket information for an S.O. I'm usually her "personal assistant".
binarysoul 13y ago
my experience is that the person on the phone usually doesn't care if you have all the relevant info