Possibility to hide user comments in profile should be optional.
Show HN: Using stylometry to find HN users with alternate accounts
451–460 of 562 posts
Re: Show HN: Using stylometry to find HN users with alternate accounts
#452Ha, gruseom shows up for pg, which is dang’s old account. A worthy successor. This is a fascinating way to find similar HN users who aren’t the same person. It’s a surprisingly great recommendation engine. “If you like pg, you might also like…” Sure, the privacy concerns are valid, but the cat’s out of the boot. Might as well enjoy the benefits. montrose is almost definitely pg. Someone who talks about ancient histor…
Why would montrose be pg ? The correlation is not that high. Looks like a few people have picked up pg's mannerisms.
There are factors that make me think it is more likely than not (just scrolled through the comment history, don't feel like linking everything) that he is pg.
- Is bolded on pg's page
- Mentions yoga
- Talks about Lisp often
- Talks about YC often
- Talks about kids
- Links to Paul Graham's website
- Says he uses vi
- Writes exactly like you would expect pg to write
Re: Show HN: Using stylometry to find HN users with alternate accounts
#453Wow. This gives a lot of false positives, but it found all ~10 of my old accounts over the years. The most interesting thing is that my writing style changed pretty drastically since a decade ago. Searching for my oldest account matches my earliest usernames, whereas searching this account matched the rest. The details of the algorithm are fascinating: https://stylometry.net/about Mostly because of how simple it is.…
Woof. I create new accounts on a semi-regular basis because I think cliques are the most corrosive factor to social media. Any time my account gathers enough upvotes enough I destroy it for another. I had four accounts. None are over 50% confidence, but when I look at any one account the others are consistently #2, #3, and #4. Now I’m thinking very carefully about what words I use to avoid linking this as the 5th acc…
Exact same thing happened to me. Wild.
Re: Show HN: Using stylometry to find HN users with alternate accounts
#454I find this tool to be disturbing. It is reality so I accept it. But I'm going to make effort to change my style between accounts.
A question for the author (costco): You created that account in 2019 but you didn't post or submit a single thing until 4 hours ago. Why did you create an account almost 3 years ago for no purpose?
Re: Show HN: Using stylometry to find HN users with alternate accounts
#455This is super impressive!
Is there a common open source library (Python, JS, whatever) that implements something like this?
Re: Show HN: Using stylometry to find HN users with alternate accounts
#456Wow. This gives a lot of false positives, but it found all ~10 of my old accounts over the years. The most interesting thing is that my writing style changed pretty drastically since a decade ago. Searching for my oldest account matches my earliest usernames, whereas searching this account matched the rest. The details of the algorithm are fascinating: https://stylometry.net/about Mostly because of how simple it is.…
On the other side of the coin, I have never had an alternate HN account (beyond maybe 1-2 throwaways with only one post or comment) so seeing the list of users that are most similar to me was interesting. I didn't see some stark similarities based on a quick peek at their comments, but it was interesting.
Re: Show HN: Using stylometry to find HN users with alternate accounts
#457Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would montrose be pg ? The correlation is not that high. Looks like a few people have picked up pg's mannerisms.
There are factors that make me think it is more likely than not (just scrolled through the comment history, don't feel like linking everything) that he is pg. - Is bolded on pg's page - Mentions yoga - Talks about Lisp often - Talks about YC often - Talks about kids - Links to Paul Graham's website - Says he uses vi - Writes exactly like you would expect pg to write
I'm sophisticately sure they are not. They recommend a founder to ask users directly what they will pay for.
Is that what PG would say?
Re: Show HN: Using stylometry to find HN users with alternate accounts
#458Earlier quoted context omitted.
What does the bolding indicate?
The explanation is here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33755466 As far as I’m concerned, it’s the killer feature of the app. The top 20 results may be noisy, but the bolded results have a signal to noise ratio close to infinity.
My results have 5 bolded users in my top 20, and I have 0 alt accounts.
Re: Show HN: Using stylometry to find HN users with alternate accounts
#459Re: Show HN: Using stylometry to find HN users with alternate accounts
#460Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are factors that make me think it is more likely than not (just scrolled through the comment history, don't feel like linking everything) that he is pg. - Is bolded on pg's page - Mentions yoga - Talks about Lisp often - Talks about YC often - Talks about kids - Links to Paul Graham's website - Says he uses vi - Writes exactly like you would expect pg to write
I'm sophisticately sure they are not. They recommend a founder to ask users directly what they will pay for. Is that what PG would say?
Of course. Why wouldn’t he? That’s sound advice.