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Ever wondered whether a poster was male or female?

ColinM · 2003-09-20 01:57:10

Often when you read a post, you make an assumption that the author is either male or female. Often you can be wrong though. There is an algorithm that claims an 80% success rate in determining the gender of the author of a piece of text. It analyses it for the arrangement of certain keywords, and based on the count of…

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#32 21-09-2003 7:12pm
Bard

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Typed in the following (just made it up as I went along) and got female score of 229 and male score of 184.

She rushed to the top of the stairs. Unknown to her, he was rushing up at the same time. He hit the 3rd stair from the top. Their eyes met and the tension in the air was suddenly ramped up by a few notches. "Stop right there!", he yelled, "you're under arrest, bitch!". "Not likely", she said, as she unexpectedly jumped out the nearest window. This was, of course, the last thing he needed.

Struggling on her way down, she finally got her mini-paraglider opened and flicked open her make-up case. The descent would give her a chance to pretty herself up a bit. Noticing that the descent would also give her a chance to pick off a few men below, she pulld out her Steyr rifle from her backpack. Death from the sky in a stunning female form, she slowed her descent and steadied her aim. Below her, something exploded with a sudden ferociousness.

I'm a guy by the way...

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#33 21-09-2003 8:09pm
lili

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me think it's easy to reconize the gender of a poster.

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#34 21-09-2003 9:02pm
ColinM

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Originally posted by lili
me think it's easy to reconize the gender of a poster.

What methods do you use to tell?

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#35 21-09-2003 9:09pm
Victor

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Haha it's wrong, then agin I used a PI post.

Female Score: 1505
Male Score: 1476

The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: female!

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#36 21-09-2003 9:22pm
Victor

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I tried this with The Corinthian - it appears he's a woman, or maybe not, depending on post.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?postid=1107836#post1107836

And Wicknight is male:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?postid=1104535#post1104535

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#37 21-09-2003 9:50pm
TomTom

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I suppmitted a few of my own posts.

The ones i was giving out in it thought i was female and the others i was male.

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#38 22-09-2003 1:06am
lili

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Originally posted by ColinM
What methods do you use to tell?

no particulary methods, it's a question of feeling. on some subjects you can guess by the reaction whom you are talking.

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#39 22-09-2003 10:13pm
The Beer Baron

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I'm late to this post I think, but still- very interesting.
I took a random number of things that I wrote (short stories long-since put up on the internet- mostly sci-fi and fantasy stuff) and out of all the ones I tested it came up right- male. (Otherwise I'd be the WKD or Smirnoff Ice Baron now wouldn't I?)

The only one that failed the test was one piece I wrote with a female protagonist. Granted the actual piece was horror-styled SF, quite gory in places, eerie and brim-full of made-up geek jargon. Yet it still managed to see me as female. This, of course, delighted me as I had tried desperatly to make the character both graceful and fragile, yet strong at the same time. (As a real lady is)

Now I'll be honest and say I found the mechanics somewhat spurious, and the psychology of it, well, it generalises too much- like psychology in general (hehe)
Seriously tho- I think it's a bit like one of those guess the numbers magic tricks. But I was just delighted about that.

As for

it's easy to reconize the gender of a poster.

I'll generalise once again and say, yes language is one thing.
Also, females tend to take a more objective view in discussions and favour the human or empathic side of them. Men tend to bitch and moan and argue over trivial things (I'll be the 1st to admit it)

Men getting angry for no reason.
Women when they feel they have been insulted.

My experiences.
But once again, how should I know?

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#40 22-09-2003 10:18pm
lili

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i think you got it, it's exactly that:)

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#41 23-09-2003 12:08am
AL][EN

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Posts: 2157

out of 3 of my posts it guessed correctly everytime

however when i just typed in random sentences it guessed incorrectly all 3 times!! weird that

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#42 23-09-2003 4:22am
BEAT

Hosted Moderators Posts: 5,945 ✭✭✭

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Posts: 5409

Female Score: 42
Male Score: 131

The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: male!

:rolleyes: How did I know it would be wrong :rolleyes:

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#43 23-09-2003 4:37am
Mossy Monk

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score: 4-1 in favour of male posts

result: it was right

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#44 24-09-2003 5:37pm
The Beer Baron

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Of course the gender of the programmer wouldn't have any influence on it either- would it?:rolleyes:

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#45 25-09-2003 3:24am
ColinM

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Good point, BB.

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