3 ms·
For calibration purposes, I offer you a pre-LLM README I wrote that includes an em-dash* followed by "No X, No Y, No Z": https://github.com/DavidBuchanan314/ste
by Retr0id 5mo ago
For calibration purposes, I offer you a pre-LLM README I wrote that includes an em-dash* followed by "No X, No Y, No Z": https://github.com/DavidBuchanan314/stelf-loader https://github.com/DavidBuchanan314/stelf-loader
*actually a hyphen but it's functioning as an em dash.
- zamadatix 5mo ago"Hyphen functioning as an em dash" is an expected human thing as it's what's easy to type. It's specifically an actual em dash which got bulldozed, much to the dismay of those who bothered to put the unicode character in.
- edbaskerville 5mo agoIf you read The Mac is Not a Typewriter in 1992—thus burning Option-Shift-hyphen into your typing patterns for life, along with a dogmatic love for serif body fonts—you're the real victim here.
- zamadatix 5mo agoOr those of us that use a full featured editor when writing md! This reminds me of another em dash+AI related topic: I've noticed LLMs have an extreme bias towards spaces around the dash while people can go either way with it.
- rzzzt 5mo agoThere's something similar in Microsoft Word, Ctrl-Alt-Minus on the numpad.
- galleywest200 5mo agoI prefer the double dash "--", but Microsoft products will convert this to a proper em-dash if you press space afterwards, I think...
- Grimblewald 5mo agoDouble should map to endash, tripple for em.
- brycewray 5mo agoWas always one of the first things I would change in Word's autocorrect settings whenever I started with a company-provided installation.
- Retr0id 5mo agoA lot of the LLM bots on HN (and elsewhere) will find-and-replace their em dashes with hypens in an attempt to evade detection.
- zamadatix 5mo agoPrecisely, anything to remove AI smells in favor of natural looking text.
- Retr0id 5mo agoMy point is I don't consider em dash vs hyphen to be a strong signal either way, humans and bots alike use both interchangeably.
- zamadatix 5mo agoA signal is not the same thing as a guarantee. Both of your points so far, i.e. your provided text & that bots often bother to replace em dashes to avoid detection, actually support that it is a signal though.
- Retr0id 5mo agoThe stronger signal is the grammatical structure, not the specific glyph used.
- zamadatix 5mo agoThe stronger yet signal is both combined! This glyph, that emoji, a given sentence structure, that formatting, a certain phrase. The more you notice -> the stronger the signal, the more you miss/discard -> the weaker the signal.
- edbaskerville 5mo agoand we will now hold you responsible!