simonwMar 22

Profiling Hacker News users based on their comments

https://simonwillison.net/2026/Mar/21/profiling-hacker-news-users/

Profiling Hacker News users based on their comments

Here’s a mildly dystopian prompt I’ve been experimenting with recently: “Profile this user”, accompanied by a copy of their last 1,000 comments on Hacker News. Obtaining those comments is easy. …

Simon Willison’s Weblog
Show threadalexgandy
This just in; posting ridiculous amounts of personal information on the internet can lead to you being profiled correctly. Wild stuff.
Mar 22 at 12:41amWeb
Show threadDoctorOetkerMar 22
Not entirely correctly though, since there are forms of censorship even on HN, which selectively blinds any method of analysis in a systematically biased way.
Show threadcm2012Mar 22
There was an Irish mafia guy who was caught because his anonymous restaurant review profile got linked to him.
Show threadRetr0idMar 22
We all know this, but in the past someone probably wasn't going to go through thousands of your comments unless you've really pissed them off. It's worth realising how much lower the activation energy is these days.
Show threadaaron695Mar 22
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