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There was another submission just a few days ago that analyzed em dashes in HN comments pre and post LLMs. The amount of em dashes has not even doubled (i.e. a

by BeetleB 6mo ago

There was another submission just a few days ago that analyzed em dashes in HN comments pre and post LLMs. The amount of em dashes has not even doubled (i.e. a comment with an em-dash is still more likely to have been written by a human than an LLM). Sorry, you're just plain wrong.

ssl-3 6mo ago
This whole conversation has lead me to finally configure a Compose key for my Linux desktop. I used to most-often write the em-dash as two juxtaposed dashes, which was kind of half-assed. But now, I've repurposed the otherwise-disused right-hand Windows key to be Compose. So I thus get go full-assed with them — at least at home. Thanks!
alvah 6mo ago
"Sorry, you're just plain wrong" that's a bit of a leap, when I'm stating my interpretation of what the general opinion is, not how the world should be. Have you interviewed everyone? (I don't just mean the small subset of everyone who posts on HN).
- keybored 6mo ago
  Your original confident sarcastic statement doesn’t look like “just stating my interpretation”. All counter-arguments are “not the point”, huh.
  - alvah 6mo ago
    I see, so people in the non-HN universe aren't abandoning the em-dash where it's actually appropriate, due to massive over-use by chatbots? And despite there being no em-dash key on a keyboard, the appearance of em-dashes in text created by members of the non-HN universe is definitely not cause for suspicion? Why would I be sarcastic /sarc
    - keybored 6mo ago
      > I see, so people in the non-HN universe aren't abandoning the em-dash where it's actually appropriate, due to massive over-use by chatbots? Are they? Do I know what “““people””” are doing? But I thought they couldn’t write it to begin with? So what is there to abandon? > And despite there being no em-dash key on a keyboard, the appearance of em-dashes in text created by members of the non-HN universe is definitely not cause for suspicion? Why would I be sarcastic /sarc Were you dizzy when you wrote this? Where are you right now? You are on HN. There is a whole em-dash meme on this board, HN, about how these trivial to produce symbols—for people who do way more complicated things with computers—are LLM tells.

by BeetleB 6mo ago

ssl-3 6mo ago

This whole conversation has lead me to finally configure a Compose key for my Linux desktop. I used to most-often write the em-dash as two juxtaposed dashes, which was kind of half-assed. But now, I've repurposed the otherwise-disused right-hand Windows key to be Compose. So I thus get go full-assed with them — at least at home. Thanks!

alvah 6mo ago

"Sorry, you're just plain wrong" that's a bit of a leap, when I'm stating my interpretation of what the general opinion is, not how the world should be. Have you interviewed everyone? (I don't just mean the small subset of everyone who posts on HN).

keybored 6mo ago
Your original confident sarcastic statement doesn’t look like “just stating my interpretation”. All counter-arguments are “not the point”, huh.
- alvah 6mo ago
  I see, so people in the non-HN universe aren't abandoning the em-dash where it's actually appropriate, due to massive over-use by chatbots? And despite there being no em-dash key on a keyboard, the appearance of em-dashes in text created by members of the non-HN universe is definitely not cause for suspicion? Why would I be sarcastic /sarc
  - keybored 6mo ago
    > I see, so people in the non-HN universe aren't abandoning the em-dash where it's actually appropriate, due to massive over-use by chatbots? Are they? Do I know what “““people””” are doing? But I thought they couldn’t write it to begin with? So what is there to abandon? > And despite there being no em-dash key on a keyboard, the appearance of em-dashes in text created by members of the non-HN universe is definitely not cause for suspicion? Why would I be sarcastic /sarc Were you dizzy when you wrote this? Where are you right now? You are on HN. There is a whole em-dash meme on this board, HN, about how these trivial to produce symbols—for people who do way more complicated things with computers—are LLM tells.