Kevin's Watch

aTOMiC wrote:For those of us who have multiple user accounts is it possible, based solely on the content an frequency of the available posts, to identify the author's secondary identity?

I think that depends on how good they are at recognizing own "style," number of words, and how hard they try...and to some extent also the subject matter.

I'm fairly sure, if it had occurred to me, and I wanted to, I could maintain distinct, hard-to connect "identities," for say SRD threads vs. Tank threads vs. Game threads or whatever.
But between, say...Tank and Close---or Politics and Philosophy and Science topics. Or Philosophy and Literature...
I think I COULD, at least for a while...but it would be a lot of conscious work/effort. And that's not why I come here. [[though back in the day, playing WOW, I fooled a guild for a bit over a year...even using Ventrilo for voice for raiding. Funny story on being found out...but not here/now]]

Well, it's possible to identify the primary one. Look how often we picked up ol' whatsisface.

--A

This 'multiple user accounts' thing puzzles me; I don't quite get the point [exept say in the case of 'Dread Poet Jethro' who might want to post entierly in haiku in one 'avatar' and not in his normal one {who is DPJ by the way?}]; how does it work? Is it encouraged. I suspect I would fill up entire threads arguing with myself .

nice guy peter wrote:This 'multiple user accounts' thing puzzles me; I don't quite get the point [exept say in the case of 'Dread Poet Jethro' who might want to post entierly in haiku in one 'avatar' and not in his normal one {who is DPJ by the way?}]; how does it work? Is it encouraged. I suspect I would fill up entire threads arguing with myself .

It's probably related to that leaky memory of yours We talked about this back in August 2012 and this was my resonse to a question you posed (very much like the one above).

u.

lorin wrote:

aliantha wrote:

Avatar wrote:You're making me feel bad guys.

--A

Good. Make it happen.

seeing you post two days in a row is making me nervous. What's wrong?

Whaddya mean, what's wrong? This is all your fault! You keep sending me pms about E-fest!
Nah. SD is closer to the mark -- I had a little downtime after the Undertow release. Plus it's been hella slow at work, and my Facebook feed seems to be filled these days with authors and book marketers trying to get me to buy stuff. The Watch is a good place to hide.

u., I'm looking forward to hearing your Oirish accent in June. It'll be educational for me -- I can't do one that doesn't sound like the Lucky Charms leprechaun, and I consider it a serious defect (since I'm of Oirish descent meself ).

Who is DPJ?
We've covered this ground before
In Lore's vampire game

Native of Florin
Schooled at Welton in Vermont
Taught by John Keating

Learned of haiku form
From American classmates
Quite a rowdy bunch

Sorry U. - your dead right of course [exept in the 'leaky' bit - non existant would be more to the mark]. By the way, what is it with this double identity thing.......

I'm very jealous by the way U. that you are going to the Efest in June. I'd love to [one of these years] make it to one - I'm betting that no-one would begin to realise it was 'me'. I'm so forgettable even I struggle to remember who I am .

[True story; I went to a school reunion with three guys [close friends in the day] and we came upon an old teacher who used to be 'house-master' in one of the boarding houses we were in. Sheen" he cried, to my first friend, "My God! You've gone bald. Hanwell!, Trwhella! You don't look a day older!" He turned to me with the same jovial bonhomie and the look froze on his face "....Eee....errr....And you were?.....Wait - I know..." . Ah well - I never did like the bastard anyway, and I never went back for another! ]

Okay guys I'll come clean. This is aTOMiC posting.
In addition to THOOLAH JOYKILLER I've changed this second profile several times (many of which were for just a post or two to annoy dANdeLION). The latest incarnations were BUNDY MONKEY and LINUXED.

Now the cat is out of the bag. I'm busted!

Just to confirm I did just post the previous comment.

nice guy peter wrote:" He turned to me with the same jovial bonhomie and the look froze on his face "....Eee....errr....And you were?.....Wait - I know..." . Ah well - I never did like the bastard anyway, and I never went back for another! ]

That's what you get for being a "nice guy," peter, instead of a berk peter
It is NOT necessarily a good thing to be remembered...except, of course, by people you really give a damn about.

THOOLAH JOYKILLER wrote:Okay guys I'll come clean. This is aTOMiC posting.

That's serious posting for an alt, Tom! Of course, anyone who is of THOOLAH is fine by me!

aliantha wrote:u., I'm looking forward to hearing your Oirish accent in June. It'll be educational for me -- I can't do one that doesn't sound like the Lucky Charms leprechaun, and I consider it a serious defect (since I'm of Oirish descent meself ).

The trick is to realise that there is no generic Irish accent. Every Irish person has an accent that is distinctive of where they are from. A Dublin accent is different from a Cork one, which is different again from a Galway one etc. (I always thing that the the Lucky Charms accent is some awful mongrelisation of a Mayo accent )

Your forebears are from Kilkenny, IIRC, ali. I'm originally from Waterford which is not that far away so my accent will actually be close enough to the Kilkenny one, so you can practice by trying to imitate mine

u.

ussusimiel wrote:

aliantha wrote:u., I'm looking forward to hearing your Oirish accent in June. It'll be educational for me -- I can't do one that doesn't sound like the Lucky Charms leprechaun, and I consider it a serious defect (since I'm of Oirish descent meself ).

The trick is to realise that there is no generic Irish accent. Every Irish person has an accent that is distinctive of where they are from. A Dublin accent is different from a Cork one, which is different again from a Galway one etc. (I always thing that the the Lucky Charms accent is some awful mongrelisation of a Mayo accent )

Your forebears are from Kilkenny, IIRC, ali. I'm originally from Waterford which is not that far away so my accent will actually be close enough to the Kilkenny one, so you can practice by trying to imitate mine

u.

BAH!!!
If it's not SCOTTISH, it's CRAP!!!

Actually, looking at that picture of Linden above, she's starting to grow on me.

Hey - I've got to ask you American guys, on the subject of accents. To a brittish ear, I can pick out small differences between the vearious regional accents of Americans - but to me your sound is predominantly 'American' way over anything else. In the UK however, the various accents seem to me massively different - say a cockney accent compared to a brummie or a scouser. When you guys hear a brit talk do we all sound first and foremost big time english, then with a little difference spread on top. I've often wondered [as well] what an english accent sounds like if heard by a frenchman [say] when he hears an english person talking french [like the equivalent of a french accent when a french person talks english]. I've got a feeling you can never 'hear' this.

nice guy peter wrote:Actually, looking at that picture of Linden above, she's starting to grow on me.

Hey - I've got to ask you American guys, on the subject of accents. To a brittish ear, I can pick out small differences between the vearious regional accents of Americans - but to me your sound is predominantly 'American' way over anything else. In the UK however, the various accents seem to me massively different - say a cockney accent compared to a brummie or a scouser. When you guys hear a brit talk do we all sound first and foremost big time english, then with a little difference spread on top. I've often wondered [as well] what an english accent sounds like if heard by a frenchman [say] when he hears an english person talking french [like the equivalent of a french accent when a french person talks english]. I've got a feeling you can never 'hear' this.

Some are easy...like cockney especially pops right out on its own...some not so much, they're just generic Brit.

In our own...yea, several are hugely different for almost everyone [everyone I've ever met instantly recognizes some of the biggies...say Boston, Georgia, Minnesota, and a couple of the NYC area ones.] But there are subtler ones, too...I know someone who can usually tell what southern STATE folk come from without even thinking. I can't do that .

Some people must be able to hear their own native accent when speaking foreign tongues...cuz some can speak them without accents...[heh...or, they speak them with an accent depending on where they learned. For instance, my German friends who learned English from the English...most never lost the generic "German" accent. But one sounded like a Brit.]

Accents are funny/interesting. When I was teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL), I began to be able to pick out accents of people from other countries when they spoke English; for example I could hear the difference between a Castillian Spanish accent and a Murcian one; or a Milanese one from a Roman one.

I found that two factors were most important in relation to accent: identity and musical ability (I didn't discover if these were mutually related). A person who had a good ear for music and was a good singer was much more likely to pick up the accent of where they were learning their second language and much more likely to speak the language in an unaccented way (that is without their own native accent being present).

Identity was important regarding speaker's own native accent being present in their second language. I found that the stronger a person's sense of their personal and national identity the stronger the accent. Country, rural and inner-city people tended to have stronger accents and certain nationalities tended to speak with a stronger or less strong accent e.g. the people with the strongest accent in Europe tended to be the French and the Spanish, while rural and inner-city Italians and Austrians had stronger accents than their urban and suburban compatriots.*

I learned over the years to never interfere with a person's accent (even if they requested me to) because I realised that it was a direct attempt to change the person's sense of identity.

Observing the importance of accent in relation to identity was easily one of the most fascinating and enjoyable aspects of language teaching.

u.

* I have an Irish acquaintance who lives in Paris. His children were born and raised there and they are now reaching the age where they are embarrassed that their father speaks French with a strong Irish accent

I'm thinking anyone listening to dlb and wf at 'fest will have no doubt about there being different American accents...

Heh. Anyone listening to the two of us talk will get that. For that matter, I've been told my regional accent shifts depending on a variety of factors...not the least of which being what I am (or have been) drinking.

ussusimiel wrote: I learned over the years to never interfere with a person's accent (even if they requested me to) because I realised that it was a direct attempt to change the person's sense of identity.

Observing the importance of accent in relation to identity was easily one of the most fascinating and enjoyable aspects of language teaching.
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As a child and into adulthood I moved 38 times. From the Bronx to Switzerland to New Jersey to Paris to Colorado and back to NYC (and everywhere in between). As a result I don't think I have a particularly strong accent, nor any sense of roots and as you say I think it effected my sense of identity. Roots and sense of community are so vital.

Of course I don't have any accent at all, but when I speak to people I find my speech patterns tend to shift toward theirs. In extreme cases I have to try and control it for fear of being thought condescending.

--A

I'm exctly the same Av. I have no accent that I'm aware of but I'm a merciless 'scavenger' of the accents of people I talk to. Within moments I can adopt an 'australian' or 'cockney' accent [quite unintentionally] and it can sometimes stick with me for a period of time after the conversation with that person has ceased. I hate it, but do it without thought and have, actively to try to stop it.