from Hacker News

How We Uncovered the Real Identity Behind “Startup L. Jackson”

by dshankar on 9/29/15, 9:56 PM with 98 comments

  • by eli on 9/29/15, 10:30 PM

    > The more I dug into the real SLJ, the more wrong it seemed. It felt uncomfortably close to doxing.

    I'm having a hard time seeing how it could possibly be anything but "doxing."

  • by gkoberger on 9/29/15, 10:09 PM

    Great analysis, and really glad Josh didn't out SLJ.

    SLJ is great because, due to his anonymity, his ideas stand on their own merit. Being outed killed Fake Steve Jobs; it'd do the same to SLJ.

  • by tsieling on 9/29/15, 11:02 PM

    Props for not going through with the outing. There's a weird sense of entitlement that people have, that they have the right to unmask someone doing nothing wrong but choosing to be anonymous. I'm really glad to read the author overcame that urge, it helps keep the world a little more interesting.
  • by Perceptes on 9/29/15, 10:43 PM

    One thing I've always wondered about these types of anonymous "Internet famous" people: How are they not instantly outed by someone who works for any of the providers in between their Twitter client and the readers? Are they all taking extremely careful steps to use things like Tor and anonymous email to prevent the process of tweeting from leaving a trail of bits anyone with access can see?
  • by ajsharp on 9/30/15, 4:43 AM

    Really cool article. However, I found myself thinking, "ok, that's nice of you for not doxing the guy, but, you kinda just handed the keys to the kingdom to the internet." Doesn't seem like SLJ cares one way or another, but, I got the feeling that the author knows that this article will undoubtedly lead to SLJ's outing within a month, two months tops. There's more than enough bored programmers out there who'll just apply the methods described wholesale, and throw it out there on reddit, or wherever. So, I'm not sure how I feel about the whole "doing the right thing by not doxxing" issue, b/c it seems like we're sort of splitting hairs on the issue.
  • by flashman on 9/30/15, 5:17 AM

    This is the (ultimately fruitless) approach I used:

    1. Find the people who were within SLJ's first few hundred followers (the API gives an account's followers in the reverse order they followed the account).

    2. Assuming some of the early followers knew SLJ's real life identity, find which accounts many of them were following prior to following SLJ.

    3. Accounts which are followed by relatively many of SLJ's early followers, but relatively few of SLJ's later followers, are candidates for SLJ's real identity.

    Ultimately I couldn't make it work, although my guess is that SLJ has some connection to Pivotal (either is a former employee or has worked with them on projects).

  • by syllogism on 9/30/15, 2:46 AM

    Great article. If nothing else, spreading the word about the severe limitations of stylometry is very important. This stuff gets used in forensics, and like other oversold forensic techniques, causes some terrible injustices. Once the court has allowed some expert testimony, the jury is instructed to take it at face value.
  • by bsmith on 9/29/15, 11:31 PM

    Cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:/...

    Looks like HN has hugged it to death...

  • by jsnk on 9/29/15, 11:17 PM

    Am I the only one who can't see the scrollbar on the page? Looks like a misuse of overflow:hidden;
  • by aaronbrethorst on 9/29/15, 10:25 PM

    I haven't got anything to back it up, but I've always assumed it was Dave McClure. I'm much more curious about who FAKE GRIMLOCK is.
  • by doughj3 on 9/29/15, 11:18 PM

    Does this website not have a scrollbar?
  • by sarciszewski on 9/30/15, 2:01 AM

    I'm extremely delighted that they spelled doxing correctly (one X, not two).
  • by raimille1 on 9/29/15, 11:09 PM

    Great job man!! This is awesome, on point ethics lesson as well.
  • by vermontdevil on 9/30/15, 12:58 AM

    I'm sure he's prepared for being outed one day in the future. Glad it's not now. Always enjoyed his tweets.
  • by robgibbons on 9/30/15, 7:53 PM

    He won't talk? Time to grab my wrench...
  • by sireat on 9/30/15, 12:40 PM

    True Names and other dangers.
  • by keithwhor on 9/29/15, 11:37 PM

    Fantastically resourceful. Great read.
  • by juiced on 9/29/15, 10:43 PM

    The posts top picture of Eminem is already telling me it is Ben Horowitz.