Two screen names but one person? What you think of WebSty for authorship analysis? (Page 1/2)
rinselberg JAN 10, 07:55 PM
WebSty

WebSty is an interactive, online stylometry tool from CLARIN-PL.

What is CLARIN-PL?
https://clarin-pl.eu/index.php/en/about-us/

Read an overview of WebSty:
https://clarin-pl.eu/index.php/en/websty-en/

Use WebSty:
https://ws.clarin-pl.eu/websty

I've never performed an automated online stylometry analysis of writing samples, so I am looking for comments from other forum members, especially if they are familiar with this technology.

It looks like a bit of a "chore" to figure out the best way to use this WebSty, so instead of going straight at it, I thought it would be strategic to set this up as a new Forum Topic, before trying my hand with it on a hypothetical scenario in which texts—writing samples—from different user accounts could be analyzed to estimate the likelihood that there are two or more screen names but only one person.

Does anyone have experience with WebSty? Is there another online tool that anyone would like to suggest?

I thought that Politics (& Religion) is the logical place for this, because the remarks about two or more screen names with the same person behind them seem to have taken hold in this Politics (& Religion) subforum, especially.
82-T/A [At Work] JAN 11, 08:35 AM

quote
Originally posted by rinselberg:

WebSty

WebSty is an interactive, online stylometry tool from CLARIN-PL.

What is CLARIN-PL?
https://clarin-pl.eu/index.php/en/about-us/

Read an overview of WebSty:
https://clarin-pl.eu/index.php/en/websty-en/

Use WebSty:
https://ws.clarin-pl.eu/websty

I've never performed an automated online stylometry analysis of writing samples, so I am looking for comments from other forum members, especially if they are familiar with this technology.

It looks like a bit of a "chore" to figure out the best way to use this WebSty, so instead of going straight at it, I thought it would be strategic to set this up as a new Forum Topic, before trying my hand with it on a hypothetical scenario in which texts—writing samples—from different user accounts could be analyzed to estimate the likelihood that there are two or more screen names but only one person.

Does anyone have experience with WebSty? Is there another online tool that anyone would like to suggest?

I thought that Politics (& Religion) is the logical place for this, because the remarks about two or more screen names with the same person behind them seem to have taken hold in this Politics (& Religion) subforum, especially.




This is interesting, and I appreciate you linking this. I spent only a couple of seconds (have to get to work in a few minutes), but I can't see if it uses AI or machine learning. Generally, for something like this to work well, the data set needs to be... diverse, if you will. I don't know what they have in the back end, but if the underlying system only knows to sets of writing documents, and has nothing to compare it for variation, it isn't a very good system. I am assuming they have some sort of comprehensive data set or data lake in the background that combines millions of pages of text for reference. The reason is that if you want to compare to sets of documents (or in this case, two posts), you'd need to be able to have a larger data set that you could use to compare the first set of documents to in order to get a baseline for what is normal and isn't normal. Then, when you compare it to the other set of documents that you suspect is the same person, you'll have a better accuracy score (F1 score).

This does require a lot of processing (to build the learning model), so I'm not sure that it would be viable for Cliff to implement across Fiero.NL... but something like this certainly would answer the question.

The thing about politics... and I know everyone here will begrudgingly agree... for MANY people, politics becomes their "identity." To be banned from Pennocks (or any other forum) because of your politics is a wholesale rejection of them. To put this more specifically... it's viewed as a direct attack psychologically on the individual. And for this reason... people will often create new accounts and come back for the sole purpose of... not continuing the debate, but psychologically reaffirming themselves that they're not wrong.

This isn't JUST politics... but another good example that most of us all remember and know about, even if we were uninvolved (like me) was the whole Archie V8 versus whoever that other guy was. I don't mean that to be snide, I really just don't remember who it was. But this other guy was incensed that people maybe preferred Archie's plans that it drove him overboard to the point that he got banned. And then for the next almost 10 years, he'd come back on Pennock's with new accounts and would trash talk anyone with an Archie V8 (or whatever it was).

It's very much a psychology thing... and it's unhealthy. People can make fun of MEM all they want, but you know what... he never came back. Which means in the grand scheme of things, he was able to get over it. We know (for a fact) that Fredtoast came back at LEAST once with a new account (since he used an e-mail address that was viewable that was literally Fred's name in it), and we called him out on it... and he eventually stopped posting with that new account. From me personally, there are too many similarities in the way BingB posts that it's fairly obvious, to me at least. I don't know for a fact, but a good analytics platform would be able to tell... the question is... is it worth my time? I'd have to scrape Pennocks specifically, otherwise the language model will focus too much on the fact that "Fiero" exists in both of them, and flag on that.
Patrick JAN 11, 05:48 PM

quote
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:

People can make fun of MEM all they want, but you know what... he never came back. Which means in the grand scheme of things, he was able to get over it.



Please, don't try suggesting that MidEngineManiac only ever posted at PFF under one username.

82-T/A [At Work] JAN 11, 06:12 PM

quote
Originally posted by Patrick:

Please, don't try suggesting that MidEngineManiac only ever posted at PFF under one username.




I guess MEM was his replacement name then? Was he banned previously for politics? Or just doing stuff that was wildly inappropriate and pissing people off?
Patrick JAN 11, 07:17 PM

quote
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:

Was he banned previously for politics? Or just doing stuff that was wildly inappropriate and pissing people off?



It's been mentioned numerous times that he posted as under8ted previously. He was banned for posting the same garbage then as he continued to post when he returned... and was subsequently booted again.

[EDIT] I'm paraphrasing here, but repeatedly posting... "The only good cop is a dead cop" is what I suspect got MidEngineManiac/under8ted kicked off this forum (twice). And yet apparently (judging from my rating indicator now dipping into the red), there are current members here who don't feel his expulsion was justified... and that's both sad and disgusting.

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 01-12-2024).]

rinselberg JAN 11, 09:25 PM
Where's BingB today?

Has talking about this idea, that he is really "fredtoast," been like a jinx?

82-T/A [At Work] JAN 12, 08:13 AM

quote
Originally posted by Patrick:

It's been mentioned numerous times that he posted as under8ted previously. He was banned for posting the same garbage then as he continued to post when he returned... and was subsequently booted again.

[EDIT] I'm paraphrasing here, but repeatedly posting... "The only good cop is a dead cop" is what I suspect got MidEngineManiac/under8ted kicked off this forum (twice). And yet apparently (judging from my rating indicator now dipping into the red), there are current members here who don't feel his expulsion was justified... and that's both sad and disgusting.




Well... there you go... reinforces what I said. If I'm banned from a website, and I don't absolutely need the "resources" that it provide (like as in, I don't still own a Fiero, but insist on coming back to P&R)... there's a problem. That goes for all of us. I enjoy the discussion back and forth with Rinse... even though I almost never agree with him... the truth is, I don't really watch the news, like almost ever... so this is a good place for conversation... DISCUSSION. What I don't like is the constant need to one-up and the back and forth.
Patrick JAN 12, 06:37 PM

quote
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:

Well... there you go... reinforces what I said.



You said... "he never came back". This ex-member did "come back" after being booted off the forum. However, IMO it's not worthwhile expending any further time or energy on discussing his sordid history here.


quote
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:

People can make fun of MEM all they want, but you know what... he never came back. Which means in the grand scheme of things, he was able to get over it.


ray b JAN 12, 07:07 PM
GREAT MINDS SPEAK OF IDEAS

mid minds speak of events

the lessor are all about people

wonder how many con's use socks [sock puppets 2nd names]
wonder if aravatadoor or stimpy is still here under a new label/sock
jdv JAN 12, 07:21 PM

quote
Originally posted by ray b:

GREAT MINDS SPEAK OF IDEAS

mid minds speak of events

the lessor are all about people

wonder how many con's use socks [sock puppets 2nd names]
wonder if aravatadoor or stimpy is still here under a new label/sock