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A challenge, identify this HN user, I tried twice and failed

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: A challenge, identify this HN user, I tried twice and failed

#111

Post by mmelin »

tokenadult wrote: post #71
mmelin wrote: post #2

I bet it's tokenadult. I do not have any other proof than the fact that I immediately thought of that username when I saw onetimetoken. :-)

I never use any other username besides tokenadult on the forums where I use the username tokenadult. I like to have one consistent identity wherever I post (real name some places, screen name some other places) and I'm sparing in my use of screen names, and nonexistent in my use of sock-puppets. (I have been tempted a few times, but have thus far always resisted the temptation.) Now I will go look at the comment so I…

No offense intended, it was just off the top of my head. Even though I do not think using a throwaway account would merit any embarrassment :)

Re: A challenge, identify this HN user, I tried twice and failed

#112

Post by mmelin »

aresant wrote: post #52
mmelin wrote: post #2

I bet it's tokenadult. I do not have any other proof than the fact that I immediately thought of that username when I saw onetimetoken. :-)

The word "token" is used in two completely different contexts, so I don't think that's right. EG: "tokenadult" = the included minority adult "onetimetoken" = account used once, like putting a disposable token into a machine

Sure, and of course since I was wrong this is correct. But my brain thought that the using the term token for a username was sufficiently distinct to maybe be a subtle hint as to the original author (especially given the original context of the comment in question).

Re: A challenge, identify this HN user, I tried twice and failed

#113

Post by [deleted] »

onetimetype wrote: post #110

Stop trying to identify this user. They did not issue a challenge to be identified--in fact they agree with the notion that privacy is dead, which seems to be what you're trying to prove with this exercise. They may have serious reasons for using a one time account. If your name is one of the (very random) guesses in this post, please neither confirm nor deny that the user is you, since this could identify that user…

[deleted]

Re: A challenge, identify this HN user, I tried twice and failed

#114

Post by jacquesm »

onetimetype wrote: post #110

Stop trying to identify this user. They did not issue a challenge to be identified--in fact they agree with the notion that privacy is dead, which seems to be what you're trying to prove with this exercise. They may have serious reasons for using a one time account. If your name is one of the (very random) guesses in this post, please neither confirm nor deny that the user is you, since this could identify that user…

> The post did not explain what methods were used,

The post didn't but the original thread did, I tried matching the vocabulary of the samples to the corpus of HN comments.

> what work in authorship identification influenced his approach

This is not a scientific paper.

> nor did he provide his ranked findings.

I'm not giving my ranked results because I think two attempts from me is enough.

> The tries are actually failed guesses, rather than, say, different algorithms attempted.

They were the #1 and #2 outputs of my code.

> This item has now devolved into a guessing game, rather than a coding exercise.

No-one said that you had to guess, but human guesses are also powered by computation at some level, even if it would be very hard to figure out exactly what went on.

> Again, stop trying to identify this user.

If that request would be posted by 'onetimetoken', who posted three times then it would have some credibility.

If you are not him/her why does this upset you ?

The 'one time account used as a rhetorical device' says fairly clearly that it is just a gimmick, not some kind of terrible secret.

And if you are 'onetimetoken' you are increasing the sample size ;)

Re: A challenge, identify this HN user, I tried twice and failed

#115

Post by astine »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #60
jacquesm wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly what I did and failed...

There are some short "googlewhacks" (though they are multiple words) in there: * collective pause to think * pure-ad parked These suggest to me a [highly proficient] non-native speaker too. "pause for thought" and "pure ad-parked" are correct versions. * "intimate patterns" is an unusual turn of phrase in this context, would probably be "personal usage patterns" * "high-end criminals" looks like an unusual hyphenatio…

From reading the original post, I think that "intimate patterns" was a stylistic choice, meaning to emphasize the invassivness of this phenomonon

Re: A challenge, identify this HN user, I tried twice and failed

#116

Post by dmoney »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #62
mds wrote: post #57

How about "martythemaniak"? Quote: > 1 point by onetimetoken 23 hours ago | link > I was just trying to empasize my point. Just out of curiosity, how would you go about identifying me? http://searchyc.com/empasize

Only two posts - http://searchyc.com/%2522identity+management%2522+roi Edit: ignore, just realised SearchYC doesn't respect "" and looks for near match words.

From that search, what about tptacek, based on the non-standard use of "ROI": http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1024825

Re: A challenge, identify this HN user, I tried twice and failed

#117

Post by gruseom »

Could be fun, but are there answers to these two questions?

  1. Does this user object to being identified?
  2. How will you know you succeeded?
I just skimmed the thread (already 107 comments), so perhaps I missed it, but I didn't see anything definitive.

Also, where's randomwalker when you need him?

Re: A challenge, identify this HN user, I tried twice and failed

#118

Post by jacquesm »

gruseom wrote: post #117

Could be fun, but are there answers to these two questions? 1. Does this user object to being identified? 2. How will you know you succeeded? I just skimmed the thread (already 107 comments), so perhaps I missed it, but I didn't see anything definitive. Also, where's randomwalker when you need him?

1) based on his writing ('a one time account as a rhetorical device') I don't think he'd mind, also there is nothing in the comment itself that you would have to be ashamed of

2) you can't be sure, unless the person will confirm using the original 'one time' account.

Re: A challenge, identify this HN user, I tried twice and failed

#119

Post by lkrubner »

Is the question serious, or is it meant as a joke? As a riposte to the earlier thread, it is fantastic. The user writes "privacy is dead" and here, on Hacker News, and also on jacquesmattheij.com, you have a thread with a lot of intelligent people trying to figure out the person's identity, and failing. Therefore, the user's original point is disproven simply by starting this new thread. If this was deliberate, then this was genius.

This earlier thread:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1197027

Contains this sentence:

"this thread highlights a fundamental property of a networked life: privacy is dead, there is only identity management."

but then this contradicts the original thesis:

"If harnessed properly, these things can be useful, but it requires a mindset and workflow not entirely dissimilar to those of spies or high-end criminals - controlling information by selective disclosure, identity segmentation, disinformation, anonymization, etc. - not for sinister purposes, mind you, but simply to guard what we traditionally call privacy."

I'd say the current thread offers proof that privacy can be defended. After all, here we have all these smart people, failing to identify the earlier user.

Re: A challenge, identify this HN user, I tried twice and failed

#120

Post by pbhjpbhj »

dmoney wrote: post #116
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only two posts - http://searchyc.com/%2522identity+management%2522+roi Edit: ignore, just realised SearchYC doesn't respect "" and looks for near match words.

From that search, what about tptacek, based on the non-standard use of "ROI": http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1024825

The styles are similar.
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