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I tracked down my impostor

theguardian.com

81–90 of 248 posts

Re: I tracked down my impostor

#81
post #6

Reminds me of something I experienced on HN and Reddit, though my case was a far less significant level. I posted a comment on HN in response to some article about Emacs. Later that day I saw someone had copied my comment word for word in reply to the same article on Reddit. I still have no idea why someone would do that. I thought at first it was some kind of karma farming operation but the post history of the Reddi…

Could it be an attempt to at legitimacy to fake accounts so they seem less fake on cursory glances? Using these accounts to support that the profile they are really trying to use is not fake?

This is always an issue on Reddit.

Re: I tracked down my impostor

#82
post #6

Reminds me of something I experienced on HN and Reddit, though my case was a far less significant level. I posted a comment on HN in response to some article about Emacs. Later that day I saw someone had copied my comment word for word in reply to the same article on Reddit. I still have no idea why someone would do that. I thought at first it was some kind of karma farming operation but the post history of the Reddi…

> I still have no idea why someone would do that. It's a fundamental way to learn. E.g., suppose people tell me I'm a real funny person. Let me test that. 1. I remember a joke from a professional funny person widely considered to be one of the best. 2. I tell that joke to the people who told me I'm a real funny person. 3. I measure the laughter I get. If the laughter is different-- e.g., if the people tell me this is…

(slightly off-topic)

When I was young, all my jokes were from somewhere else (101 funny jokes!) and people thought they were funny. My problem was remembering them.

Nowadays everybody has seen all the good ones ("Bring me my brown pants!")

So now the problem with telling jokes from a "professional funny person" is that if you've heard it before, chances are others have too and you're getting polite laughter.

Re: I tracked down my impostor

#84
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting how the test score is 80% in the twitter thread and 95% in the article.

Given he's a UK prof if he was told the paper was given an 'A' in the UK that can be anywhere from 70-100, while in the US it is 90-100. He might have initially split the difference, and then corrected it/was corrected for the article.

> in the US it is 90-100

In a science or engineering class, it might be everything above 40%.

Re: I tracked down my impostor

#85
post #6

Reminds me of something I experienced on HN and Reddit, though my case was a far less significant level. I posted a comment on HN in response to some article about Emacs. Later that day I saw someone had copied my comment word for word in reply to the same article on Reddit. I still have no idea why someone would do that. I thought at first it was some kind of karma farming operation but the post history of the Reddi…

There was a Reddit bot a few years ago (aptly named 'trappedinreddit') that would automatically post the previous top comment on reposts. Predictably, those comments would get upvoted again, and trappedinreddit would end up with the top comment on most posts. It lasted a few months before the bot was outed and it went away.

Sweet, sweet karma. And then you go sell the account.

Re: I tracked down my impostor

#86

> Some of the work should have been spotted by plagiarism checkers I've been in postgraduate academia and industry, and been involved in multiple conferences at different levels. I'm not aware of anyone ever running a plagiarism detector on any submitted work at all. Do other people do this? Should the people I work with have been doing it?

I keep waiting for someone to find a plagiarism checker retained a copy of their work and sue for copyright infringement.

Re: I tracked down my impostor

#89
post #72
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice burn. Joking aside, I agree. There is so many things you could achieve while successfully impersonating someone. Seems like the best you can do in academia is to ruin someone's career. In this case it seemed fortunately "harmless" though.

Academia is one where the chickens won’t come home to roost - as in you won’t actually be called to DO what you’re impostering to be able to do. Fake being a surgeon and they’ll assign you to surgery, etc.

[deleted]

Re: I tracked down my impostor

#90
post #72
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice burn. Joking aside, I agree. There is so many things you could achieve while successfully impersonating someone. Seems like the best you can do in academia is to ruin someone's career. In this case it seemed fortunately "harmless" though.

Academia is one where the chickens won’t come home to roost - as in you won’t actually be called to DO what you’re impostering to be able to do. Fake being a surgeon and they’ll assign you to surgery, etc.

Psychiatry is a field where you can get away it. Zholia Alemi successfully masqueraded as a qualified psychiatrist for 23 years https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/17230748.doctor-faked-wil...
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