If You're Going To Forge An Email By Mark Zuckerberg, Make Sure You Use Proper English
from the not-txt-spk dept
We've already mentioned that Facebook is claiming that the email evidence presented by Paul Ceglia for his claim that he should own a huge chunk of Facebook was a fraud. Time's Techland blog digs a little deeper into the filing and highlights the research of a linguistics expert Facebook hired to compare known emails from Zuckerberg at the time, with the emails Ceglia presented as Zuckerberg's, suggesting that Ceglia's versions do not match Zuckerberg's standard email writing style. Most interesting? The emails Ceglia presented as evidence show a much less formal writing style, whereas Zuckerberg's emails use proper punctuation:The link has some more examples as well, but this is certainly fascinating. Obviously, this is from Facebook's hired expert, but it does make you realize just how much people have specific language "tics" in how they write, and how difficult it is to fake that, sometimes.Apostrophes
A) Questionable Zuckerberg writes:
"doesnt," "parents" (parents'), "sites" (site's = contraction for “site is”), and "sites" (site's = possessive)
B) Real Zuckerberg's contractions and possessives are all used correctly. So there's that.
Suspension Points
A) Questionable Zuckerberg writes:
“. . . I've been tweaking the search engine today,” with spaces in between his suspension points.
B) Real Zuckerberg doesn't space out his suspension points. For example: “So let me know…”
Spelling
A) Questionable Zuckerberg writes these words as follows:
“back end” (two words), “internet” (lower case “I”), and “can not” (two words)
B) Real Zuckerberg writes:
“backend” (one word), “Internet” (capital “i”), and “cannot” (one word)
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: email, linguistics, mark zuckerberg, paul ceglia
Companies: facebook
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Kids read and type more today than ever thanks to things like Facebook. What, you'd have them go back to sitting in front of the TV, like the 70s and 80s, before computers?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
The number thing was mostly a fad in the late 90s early 2000s. People who speak with broken English or attempt "1337 $p3@k" in anything other than ironic contexts are not highly regarded individuals even on forums mostly dominated by sugar filled hormone raging teenagers for quite a while.
Hell, I am actually surprised how many nurses I've talked to have the absolutely worst grammar and spelling on the internet. They use abbreviations in hospitals all the time and carry that over into the internet. These people are not kids or under educated but their typing habits in casual language to others are far more atrocious then lolcats.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
My current favorite is the people ranting about having to press 1 to hear the message in English and managing to mange it at the same time.
While the increase in reading and typing is a good thing, the sheer number of people who believed the Onion story about the AbortionPlex was real shows that we have much to teach in the area of critical thought.
IKR itz so lam, old dude is like old and stuf
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
Dumb people have a louder voice now thanks to technology. You didn't notice them before because they were swept under the carpet because they learned to keep their mouth shut. But now they can speak out their stupidity without receiving immediate ridicule. Any ridicule they receive is well after the fact so they aren't trained to shut up. Anyone who thinks critical thinking isn't the same as it was 30 years ago either wasn't around then or just wants the damn kids off their lawn.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
A fair trade, but the PIAA (Punctuation Industry Assoc of America) makes me pay for the three dots a second time.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Harvard
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Close your FB accounts, throw your computer in the trash and enjoy nature...outside...
Get off your lazy chair, go out and make REAL friends. Go out and a find yourself a real date.
Socialize with your family at the dinner table. Unplug your TV and radio, don't even use them unless there's a weather emergency. Read the King James Bible with your family. Don't trust in the entertainment media, trust in the Savior and Lord.
Also, when driving don't even listen to the radio. It's full of satanic lyrics even in Christian music.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The idea is to warn you before it hits... If you wait till your in the middle of a hurricane before turning on your radio its too late.
"This is a message from the Emergency Broadcast System... If your just tuning in now, your fucked."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Now, the next question...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Perfect Grammar Is Anonymouse
More so in the errors that they produce. In fact, for people with near perfect grammar, it becomes harder to identify a fake from the real deal.
Just think of how many Nigerian scams are easily identified because of terrible grammar. Bad grammar is a tell. Good grammar is ambiguous - could be a scam, could be a real prince...hmmm.
This is why mapmakers and other producers of data insert errors into their work. Because only then can a copyright violation be proven: if someone copies a perfect map of Chicago, then it would be unprovable. But if you invented a few fake streets, and those were also copied, the infringer could be caught out.
The errors found in the suspect emails will, eventually, make the questionable emails look more like Ceglia's writing, because the errors will match up. Similar errors suggest a match, while similar correct prose is inconclusive.
"...how they write, and how difficult it is to fake that, sometimes."
I dunno, Mike. Since Zuck's writing is grammatically correct, it is, in fact, very easy to fake it. To mimic Zuckerberg, all Ceglia would have had to do is improve his grammar, or run it through a good grammar checker --- seems worth a few billion! Of course, having faked it well, it does not mean that it was Zuck, because many people write correctly.
Wow, I had a point, I'm sure. Anyway, I wrote "mouse" in the subject on porpoise to make sure I'm not copied.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
dave made contact with paul ceglia and was in discussion about a platform for my idea the facebook.but zuckerberg made contact to paul ceglia to steal the idea facebook . david got e-mails from zuckerberg saying he was not interested in the idea facebook ; david then contacted dustin chris to find out about this email i got from zuckerberg; they went into denial about this. but later on got a email from chris saying they were not interested in the idea facebook
DAVID CONTACTED CHRIS to say that david was going to sign the contract with paul ceglia .CHRIS told zuckerberg and zuck made contact to paul ceglia to steal the idea facebook ON APRIL 2003 .and this is how and why zuckerberg sign the contract with paul ceglia
[ link to this | view in chronology ]