From: Arthur Chandler <arthurc@crl.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 93 10:28:24 PDT
To: jpinson@fcdarwin.org.ec
Subject: Re: ID of anonymous posters via word analysis?
In-Reply-To: <9310290952.aa20334@pay.ecua.net.ec>
Message-ID: <Pine.3.87.9310291032.A24998-0100000@crl.crl.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



  I remember reading some time ago that the Nazis had a method of 
trapping communists that went like this:
  They'd put the suspect in  room and carry on a conversation with him 
(all males, as I remember). Then, after several hours of conversation 
about any and all kinds of subjects, they would tote up the number of 
times that the suspect used the word "concrete" -- evidently a favorite 
left-wing buzzword in the '30s. If the "concrete" cropped up frequently 
.... off to camp went the suspect.
  I think that identification by buzzwords, habitual misspellings, etc. 
could be used to identify anonymous posters. Sentence structure is also 
revealing. Le style, c'est l'homme, said Voltaire.  Of course, it all 
comes down to how much time and effort you want to put into proving, say, 
that SBoxx=LDetweiler.
  And the method is fallible. I've seen some pretty wacky schemes 
"proving," by word or grammatical analysis, that Shakespeare's works were 
written by Francis Bacon, Chris Marlowe, Queen Elizabeth, etc. It's very 
easy to be misled by your desire to prove something you're already 
convinced of for other reasons.