Rose at Romantoes and Erica (a.k.a. “Cleanser”) at the good old daysfound some fun little gizmos for blog analysis last week, so I decided to put Historiann.com through the wringer too to see what we’d have left over to hang out on the clothesline. Here’s what the random and non peer-reviewed internets have to say about chez nous:
- This blog is probably written by a man, “however it’s quite gender neutral.” Yes, there’s a 59% chance that I’m a man! (I guess most blogs that contain the word “feminist” and “feminism” over and over again are written by angry men, and not angry women? Wev.) The program must have a grammar-based rather than a content-based algorithm.
- This blog is worth $47,421.36. Not bad for a very part-time job. (Actually, that number is disturbingly close to what I earn at my day job! When those lines cross, I’m outta Baa Ram U., baby.) Of course that website doesn’t tell me who precisely would pay me $47K+ for my blog–but I’m sure that once I’ve resigned, I’ll have lots of time to figure that out.
- The typealyzer analysis was disturbingly accurate in some ways, and comically off-base in others. Apparently, I am a “mechanic.” Here goes:
“The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.”
That’s me, for the most part, and this blog has become something of an agony column this semester, not to mention all of the posts on academic bullying that have proved so (unfortunately!) popular. So, what else?
“The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.”
Fun? Sure. Action and risk–oh my, no. The most adventure I get is hunting for a parking space Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at Baa Ram U., and the biggest risk I take is the occasional cup of black coffee after 3 p.m. I live in a happily predictable routine, and actually prefer it this way, after working so hard and spending so many years wondering if I would ever have the kind of professional and family life I enjoy now, at the same time and in the same state. “Risk” at this point would mean severe illness or disability for me or the illness, disability, or loss of a friend or family member, and I can live without that kind of drama, thanks very much.
Here’s what’s kind of funny: Erica is an engineer, and Typealyzer says her blog is written by a “Performer,” you know “[t]he entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don’t like to plan ahead — they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.” And I’m the “mechanic!” (Those of you who know me in real life will have a laugh at that one.) Sorry, Erica–I’m just as baffled as you are, although I think your blog is “especially attuned to pleasure and beauty,” not to mention humor and retro-domesticity, which is why I love it! Oh, and Rose and Tom: you’re “Performers” too!
Run your blogs through the wringer and let me know what you find. (I’ve already checked some of you out–there are a lot of “Performers” on my blogroll!)
Historiann 
The first one said there was an 85% chance my blog was written by a man.
The second one said I was an ISTJ – Duty Fulfiller. Heh. Wrong!
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Nice change of pace, Historiann!
There is a 58% chance that a male mechanic writes Baudrillard’s Bastard, a blog worth $15,807.12.
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Mine is supposed to be written by a man.
The typealizer says I’m an INTP (Thinker) although the real Meyers-Briggs test keeps calling me ENFP. Hmmmmm.
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Those eight-second tire changes have to date gone uncommented on, but not unnoticed out here, Historiann. My compliments to your crew!
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What is up with everybody else being Mechanics except me! I need to write a month-long special on correlating theoretical system models to real-life engineering problems, see if that fixes the problem. Or maybe I should just post more vintage tool advertising cheesecake. Of course, then I’d probably be a male mechanic…
I suppose I should embrace my well-roundedness, that I can be warm and fuzzy in my free time while being hardcore analytical at work. Still, I can’t help feeling a bit insulted — a random internet tool just does not understand me. 😀
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Based on what the algorithm said about Erica, I had concluded that the personality type evaluations probably contained exactly zero bits of information. Getting labeled as a “performer” is probably based on counting the number of words that can be recognized as adjectives.
I wonder if anybody’s sent this to Mark Liberman at Language Log, which is the foremost blog for dealing with linguistic pseudoscience.
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Analyzer #1 – also 59% likelihood that I’m a man.
Analyzer #3 – also a mechanic.
The one that really got me was #2, though. Apparently, my blog is “worth” close to $100K, about twice as much as my annual salary. Am wondering whether anybody would actually pay me that money, as it would mean I’d be out of debt (both credit card and student loan) and would give me a fat down payment for a house…. I mean, I could always start a new blog if I sold mine for what it’s supposed to be worth….
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Has anyone figured out how the “What’s your blog worth” tool makes its calculations? I suppose it has to do with traffic, number of comments, and so forth…but I couldn’t find any explanation on the site.
Well, gotta get back to filling my home with sweet scents and soft fabrics–it’s a full-time job, you know! I just might exhaust myself doing it…
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The gender analyzer pegged the masculinity of my blog at 86%, but the typealizer lists me as an ESTP, whereas I am in fact an INTP (a mild I but an extreme N).
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I’ve got to check out those acronyms that I thought were random letters again–they’re Myers-Briggs personality inventory scores! (Thanks, Prof. Z–sorry I’m so out to lunch.) It looks like Prof. Z and Profane want to swap diagnoses…
Off to my grad seminar now–thanks all of you for reporting on the results you got! (And Indyanna–thanks for noticing my speed in the pit-stops!)
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Girlscholar is a Mechanic, too!
Girlscholar is also 77% likely to be a man. A very confused man, it seems.
Sadly, her blog is only worth $15,807.12.
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You’re more man than I am? Say it isn’t so, Notorious!
I wuz robbed.
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@Rose — I think it basically just assigns a dollar value to your Technorati score, which is calculated by the number of incoming links. If you get more people to write stuff about you, you’re theoretically worth more.
(Very, very theoretically.)
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Maybe we should leverage some of these theoretical valuations and run a Historiann car at Talladega next season. Hire Danica; she got totally set up on that last pit row confrontation, in which she was a model of reason if you watched it in slow motion. Of course it’s easy to say “we” when you’re only a commenter. Can commenters get this form of gender-phrenology and a hedge fund worth estimate from this magic machine?
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this is such a fun distraction. thanks. 😀
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Well, I put personality inventories somewhere between tarot and goat entrails for reliability, in part because the descriptions are generic and self-flattering enough to fit just about anyone. However I came up INTP (thinker), which I just confirmed in the first sentence, and which I’d like to take credit for the good parts of, but must own up to the bad parts of….
My blog’s only worth $12K. Can any of you rich kids spare a shekel and a blogroll slot?
I came up 76% man. I’m especially proud of the other 24%. I suspect that one’s analyzing for direct, declarative vs. qualifying language and perhaps for adjective/adverb frequency, maybe even question marks. All that Deborah Tannen stuff, “report vs. rapport.”
This was fun! There’s another one, the “Blog Readability Test,” that rates what level of education is required to read your blog. Mine went from “High School” to “Genius” recently, boy am I gettin’ smart. Musta been all those Palin posts. Find it here:
http://www.criticsrant.com/bb/reading_level.aspx
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I got College (Undergrad) on the readability test. THEY ARE WEARING OFF ON ME! NOOOOOOoooooo!
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My blog had a 65 percent chance of being written by a man. Apparently, it is also written by an “INTP — Thinker.”
I decided not to look at its worth as my blog’s value is falling faster than GM stock.
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