[jacquesm]

Well, maybe we didn't go to the same school then ;)

There are no words in the English language that should be dismissed with prejudice, but is one of those.

I'm not a 'native' speaker (or writer), the dutch for 'but' is 'maar', and it indicates a modification of the first part of the sentence, a qualifier.

It does not negate the preceding part but it detracts from it, so I mean that to read (and I'll try to avoid the use of 'but')

I take your word for the research, HN will have some of that that, given the general level of discourse here and having read extensively in both articles written by HN'ers and the comments I have yet to see your point proven but it is bound to be true to some extent.

Better like that? ;)

[corruption]

Much :)

We are now quibbling over magnitudes, which is moot since there is no data either way.

[jacquesm]

You have my interest peaked though regarding the magnitude, and I really support your idea for an experiment.

Writing style apparently is not as easy to distinguish as we thought it was:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1199592

and a follow-up:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1203836

So the previously mentioned 'but we'll recognize people by their writing style if we obscure their ids' probably does not hold water.