This is a fun little website that analyzes the text of a blog. Here’s mine:
“blaghag.com is probably written by a female somewhere between 26-35 years old. The writing style is personal and happy most of the time.”
Hey, not bad! I’m a 22 year old female, though I can see how my writing seems a tad more mature. And that happy to ranty ratio seems about right.
I wonder if this works well for other blogs?
“friendlyatheist.com is probably written by a female somewhere between 66-100 years old. The writing style is personal and upset most of the time.”
Oh, erm. …Never mind.


44 comments
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LS
September 10, 2010 at 3:29 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
As far as I can tell, *nobody* writes like a male. I’m a woman in my 60s.
Zoe Hayes
September 10, 2010 at 3:35 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Bam! I write like a male between 26-35 years old. (As it happens, I am a 22-year-old woman.)
kareth
September 10, 2010 at 3:36 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Yeah, I’m starting to wonder just what it takes for that thing to consider you “writing like a man”. Talking about sports and guns? According to it I am a happy octogenarian woman. (Hint: Two of those three things I am not.)
Leah
September 10, 2010 at 3:40 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I want to see Hemant in a wig and a mu-mu, yelling at damn kids to get off his porch.
LS
September 10, 2010 at 3:44 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
So, sexy lady, wanna get out of this crazy blog and head over to my livejournal? ~.^
kareth
September 10, 2010 at 3:47 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Sorry, I’m too upset for anything like that ;)
Leah
September 10, 2010 at 3:49 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
It thinks I’m between 51-65. I’m only 30.
WhatPaleBlueDot
September 10, 2010 at 3:49 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I can picture it. Can someone photoshop it?
Gus Snarp
September 10, 2010 at 4:02 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
It accurately pegged me as male, but apparently I now qualify for Medicare. I’m also upset and academic most of the time. I suppose I spent enough time in grad school that it rubbed off, but academic may not be the best descriptor, real academic writing is something else entirely. But the sample size for me was probably inadequate.
Andie
September 10, 2010 at 4:08 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Female.. Check.Between 66 and 100? Seriously? (am also 30)The good news is, although I bitch a lot (44%) , I’m happy more than I’m bitchy.
Andie
September 10, 2010 at 4:09 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
The grammar Nazi in me finds this irritating:”The analysis is based upon 11 posts that has enough English words.”
LS
September 10, 2010 at 4:14 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Likely more of a coding error than anything. Somehow messed up on calling the variable which becomes “has” or “have.”
Aaron Harmon
September 10, 2010 at 4:17 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I don’t know what you are all complaining about. It says I am a 30-40 male with a heart condition caused by over-sized genitalia. Sound spot on to me.OK, sure. It’s a dick joke. Sue me. :)
Sven
September 10, 2010 at 4:44 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
It’s 99% sure that I’m a woman. I was almost positive my constant use of the F word was going to skew that the other way.
Andie
September 10, 2010 at 4:52 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Fair enough.
Kaessa
September 10, 2010 at 6:02 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
It won’t find my RSS feed. /sadpanda
Andrew Hall
September 10, 2010 at 6:13 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Let’s see…I am a guy.I’m not 66-100.I’m happy quite a bit.I’m mostly personal, but 22% academic. I can live with that.http://laughinginpurgatory.blo…
Streeaker
September 10, 2010 at 6:52 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
“streeaker.deviantart.com is probably written by a female somewhere between 66-100 years old. The writing style is personal and happy most of the time.”Well… I’m a 34-year-old male, and well I’ll grant that it was right about it being “personal”, but happy? Not really, no — most of my friends (not that there are many) would probably answer either “psychotic” or “megalomaniacal”, neither of which is particularly happy.
Joé McKen
September 10, 2010 at 7:08 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Err, I tried to use it but apparently my blog doesn’t have the right type of feed or whatever. Too bad.
Stephen
September 10, 2010 at 7:14 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
“stephenmarsh.blogspot.com is probably written by a male somewhere between 66-100 years old. The writing style is personal and upset most of the time.”Hm. Iiiiiinteresting. I’d like to see the methodology for this: I’m a little worried about what things this analyzer thinks are gendered. But I’m also trying to figure out how I jumped like 70 years in my writing style. Maybe I talk about death too much.
Warner aka ntsc
September 10, 2010 at 8:23 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
“Could not find any enough English posts.” From the ‘we couldn’t figure your blog out’ message. Think the writer is between 2 and 6.
Givesgoodemail
September 10, 2010 at 8:32 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Meh.Gender Genie works much, much better.
Berlzebub
September 10, 2010 at 8:37 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
55% chance of me being a man… Correct.I wonder if this might have to do with how much the writer talks about emotions?28% (highest percentage) that I’m 66-100 years old… Incorrect.Interestingly, my actual age range, 36-50, rated 14%. It tied with 18-25 and 51-65. Also, the “about me” section of my blog tells people that I’m in my mid-thirties. Actually, that’s a little off now, and I’m going to correct it to say I was born in the very early ’70s.Is this referring to maturity or senility?53% upset/47% happy… But that adds up to 100%Part of the time I’m a Vulcan.40% academic / 60% personal… Well, I’m not an academic, so I’d buy that.It’d be interesting to find out the parameters it uses for assessment.
Berlzebub
September 10, 2010 at 8:41 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
FYI, for anyone interested, here’s PZ’s results.
Fiona
September 10, 2010 at 10:48 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I’ma middle aged man!http://urlai.com/url/littlelio…
Vixen Strangely
September 10, 2010 at 11:51 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I’m a dude! (Um, I’m not a dude….) But the website thinks I am. http://urlai.com/url/vixenstra… It is right about me being between 36-50.
Givesgoodemail
September 11, 2010 at 1:58 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Meh.Gender Genie works much better.
Improbable Joe
September 11, 2010 at 2:11 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Well, it got the age right… It said I was a happy woman. Since I’m a clinically depressed and often furious man, it makes me wonder how sad and angry the average “happy woman” must be.
Hemant
September 11, 2010 at 3:33 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Curse you, Leah. Curse you :-P
VeritasTruthseeker
September 11, 2010 at 3:47 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
It must only look at the front page. It’s telling me there aren’t enough posts with lots of words in it. Anyone who knows me knows my posts are rare but often wordy.
Azkyroth
September 11, 2010 at 5:04 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
The whale molested you back and you had to be revived by paramedics? :P
Dale Husband
September 11, 2010 at 10:02 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
My analysis says:http://urlai.com/url/circleh.w…“http://circleh.wordpress.comExpressions of Honorable Skepticism Text analysiscircleh.wordpress.com is probably written by a male somewhere between 66-100 years old. The writing style is personal and happy most of the time.”I am male, but I’m 41. And more often than not, I’m criticizing someone or something on my WordPress blog, which is hardly a happy task. That’s why it’s called Dale Husband’s Intellectual RANTS.
Raithie
September 11, 2010 at 10:51 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Hmm… apparently I’m a 66-100 year old man. I’m a sixteen year old female. Oh yay. http://urlai.com/url/teenageat…
Heather Aurelia
September 11, 2010 at 11:10 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Apparently I am a 66-100 year old woman. I am 21. Close though, real close.
Peter Madsen
September 11, 2010 at 12:19 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Odd. I made my blog so I could philosophize and rant about stuff I hated. Evidently my hatred is friendly and my philosophy is non-academic? Grrrr…. off to my blog I go, apparently to playfully and pleasantly comment about how I’m actually a mean-spirited, intellectual 22-year-old male. Also, what exactly does “you write like an old woman” mean? I haven’t written about crocheting, great-grandkids, or cooking recipes, like, ever.
dunesen
September 11, 2010 at 5:04 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Call me a killjoy, but this sounds similar to that “What writer do you write like” thing from a few weeks ago that *shock* turned out to be crap. Without even looking at the site, I’m guessing the ‘female’ part is picked by how often the writer talks about female issues, and the age range perhaps relies on pop culture references. But that’s just a wild guess off the top of my head.Because really, what algorithms or criteria could be used to determine age or gender? Looking for specific keywords and doing some sort of cold-reading sounds incredibly plausible to me.And I think the ‘maturity’ label is iffy for you Jen :p
Irene Delse
September 11, 2010 at 5:12 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
OK; I get the “personal”, but how does this site decide if I write in a “happy” manner or not?
Philip Kahn
September 11, 2010 at 8:33 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Huh. I tweet too science-y.The Dichotomous Trekkie 2.0The Musings of an AstrophysicistText analysisCould not find any enough English posts. Posts with less than 50 words are disregarded.
Joshua Zelinsky
September 11, 2010 at 9:51 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
http://urlai.com/url/religions… says “religionsetspolitics.blogspot…. is probably written by a male somewhere between 66-100 years old. The writing style is academic and upset most of the time.”That’s probably all fair except the age estimate where the lower bound is off by 40 years (although the correct age range is the next more likely).
stellaluna
September 11, 2010 at 11:08 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
very
Improbable Joe
September 11, 2010 at 11:14 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Someone should totally do something about that…
Ahab
September 12, 2010 at 1:44 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I couldn’t resist. I had to run my blog through the website, and it came back with this:”Republic-of-gilead.blogspot.co… is probably written by a male somewhere between 66-100 years old. The writing style is academic and upset most of the time. “It makes me sound like frail, graying old man sobbing over his PhD dissertation! Where do they get their algorithms?
chicagodyke
September 12, 2010 at 3:00 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
sorry, i think sites like that are just silly. a good writer can change “voices” easily, and there are a host of other factors that can change the tone, “happiness” and other elements of any given piece. totally unscientific bunk, if a fun waste of time.
SuperHappyJen
September 12, 2010 at 4:04 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
This site did not work for me. I kept getting errors when I typed my blog url. I’m confident I write like a girl though, so it’s all good.BTW: read my blog! http://www.superhappyjen.blogspot.com