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When Writing, How Anonymous Can You Be, Really?

Posted by timothy on from the go-ask-your-ghostwriter dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Do you still think your online writing is, basically, anonymous? Think again! Research has it people put much of their personal traits into their writing, and computers may just be able to pick them up. That's at least what a recently announced competition on author identification (Given a document, who wrote it?) and author profiling (Given a document, what are its author's age and gender?) wants to find out. Alas, re-using other people's writing is no solution either; there's also a competition on plagiarism detection (Given a document, is it an original?). Wanna revisit your recent rants?"

9 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Yes, we know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I got this one. You sir are Anonymous Coward, with UID 00666. Now, what prize do I get for this?

  2. Guess who I am! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    >throw machine at 4chan
    >"Identify!"
    >all posters sound the same
    >machine concludes all posters are part of a highly advanced AI
    >machine becomes depressed that it will never create anything wonderful like the spaghetti threads or /mlp/
    >kills itself
    >mfw

    Based on the above, who am I?

  3. astroturfers by vlm · · Score: 1, Funny

    This would have been a lot more fun about two months ago to detect paid political astroturfers.

    The ultimate AI-ish application would be an astroturfer plugin for chrome probably called "AstroturfBlock". So the site is a "tech" site, the contents are pure politics, and the text analysis system indicates an unemployed liberal arts degree holder... Go ahead and block it.

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  4. Re:Can it beat Google? by monkeyhybrid · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thank you for updating your age and gender details in our databases.

    Yours sincerely,
    Google.

  5. Re:Yes, we know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why are you replying to yourself?

    Wait. Why am I replying to myself again?

  6. Betteridge strikes again by complete+loony · · Score: 2, Funny

    When Writing, How Anonymous Can You Be, Really?

    No.

    --
    09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
  7. Re:Yes, we know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Warning: Infinite Loop. {Author} Identified: {Unidentified Author}.

  8. Re:Can it beat Google? by demonlapin · · Score: 3, Funny

    You'd think the searches for things like "gel nails" might tip them off

    Nah, just makes it think you're emo.

  9. Re:So the author of Hamlet can finally be identifi by M.+Baranczak · · Score: 3, Funny

    Kevin Bacon.