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How To Write Like Mark Zuckerberg

newguy77 found a story talking about the results of a linguistics expert being brought in on the Facebook ownership case. They claim the emails are faked since Zuckerberg uses apostrophes correctly and opens sentences more casually than the damning emails.

12 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. grammar nazis find work by corbettw · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So all those years of being a grammar nazi can result in actual gainful employment? Who knew?

    Also:

    They claim the emails are faked since he uses Apostrophes correctly

    But did he use Capitalization correctly?

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    1. Re:grammar nazis find work by TheLink · · Score: 2, Funny

      In the US they only care about market capitalization.

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  2. Re:Who needs privacy when you've got PHP? by somersault · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You forgot the government.

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    which is totally what she said
  3. Re:Not a Reliable Method by Abstrackt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Zuckerburg's writing style of 2003 needs to be compared with emails of that era, not today. Furthermore, he could have been off on some random day in 2003 because he had a cold and wasn't thinking. This just isn't that reliable of method of determining authorship.

    It is a reliable method of creating doubt though. Once he has doubt on his side, the case becomes a lot more difficult for his opponent.

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    They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
  4. Re:Not a Reliable Method by RazzleFrog · · Score: 4, Informative

    According to the actual court document: " KNOWN writings used for comparison were various email writings of Mr. Zuckerbergexchanged with the Plaintiff and related parties during the time period as specified in the Amended Complaint, which totaled 35 emails

  5. Re:Who needs privacy when you've got PHP? by SharpFang · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The basic difference between the two is how they manage harvested data.

    So, you come to Google, "I have this gizmo for sale, help me sell it." and Google goes "Fine, we found 2000 customers who purchased your gizmo, ship the gizmos here and here (or let us handle it), and here's your money, after we took our cut."

    So, you come to Facebook, "I have this gizmo for sale, help me sell it." and Facebook goes "Fine, pay us our cut and here's your 20000000 records of our users data, emails, phones, home addresses, we guess at least 2000 of them are bound to be willing to buy your gizmo if you market it to them."

    It's definite oversimplification but it seems your data is much safer with Google than with Facebook.

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  6. Bonus points for the semi-colon! by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Off-topic and pointless maybe, but I use them a lot in my own writing. I remember a handful of esoteric grammatical tips from way back in high school that I've found really help out with bringing the context of conversation to the written word. I'm no grammar god, but it's disappointing to see how much knowledge of the intricacies of our written language is being lost in the era of LOLs and ZOMGs. I'm a casual reader of the classics, and it's amazing how pervasive beautiful writing was even at the lowest tiers of education; e.g. Civil War-era letters from soldiers to their loved ones (lol).

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    1. Re:Bonus points for the semi-colon! by sodul · · Score: 2

      I would assume that the lowest tiers were not even able to read, so the soldiers you mention might have been the equivalent of upper middle class nowadays. See Literacy in North America: "In 1870, 20 percent of the entire adult population was illiterate, and 80 percent of the black population was illiterate".

  7. Re:Who needs privacy when you've got PHP? by somersault · · Score: 2

    The two don't have to be directly linked. They do both, and they're doing their damndest to make invading your privacy even more legal. I'm sure they do plenty of invading illegally too, when they can get away with it. The government also get money from those they help out, and the privacy erosion helps to ensure that any who want to dispose of the current crooked system get wiped out.

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    which is totally what she said
  8. Re:Who needs privacy when you've got PHP? by kevinmenzel · · Score: 2

    No, I call that part of the social compact that defines society :p

  9. Re:Styles change. by Gaygirlie · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I will admit, in general, it shouldn't change with all those points in just a few years

    The whole point is that the linguistics experts compared the alleged fake emails to proven-real emails _from the same time_, not to his current ones.

    Atleast I find it very much unlikely that Zuckerberg would've somehow unlearned how to use apostrophes, capitalization and ellipsis correctly every time he contacted the other person, but again picked up on the correct grammar every time he was communicating with other people.

  10. Re:Idea for a game by Trilkin · · Score: 2

    Sounds more like a band name.

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