StupidFilter is an attempt to automatically detect "stupid" English writing. I'm pretty skeptical of this — we do a pretty crummy job of detecting spam, and stupidity is a lot more subjective (for example, text-messaging abbreviations and "LOL" are not necessarily indications of stupidity). Still, it seems like an entertaining way to pass the time:
The solution we're creating is simple: an open-source filter software that can detect rampant stupidity in written English. This will be accomplished with weighted Bayesian analysis and some rules-based processing, similar to spam detection engines. The primary challenge inherent in our task is that stupidity is not a binary distinction, but rather a matter of degree. To this end, we're collecting a ranked corpus of stupid text, gleaned from user comments on public websites and ranked on a five-point scale.
(Thanks, Eileen!)
