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New accounts on HN more likely to use em-dashes

marginalia.nu

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Re: New accounts on HN more likely to use em-dashes

#291

Post by kklisura »

jedberg wrote: post #259
Lerc wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth remembering that you can argue that the use of the word is acceptable now, but can you guarantee that in 30 years time the future world will agree with you to the extent that they let you hold a position of responsibility after using the word 30 years ago. There is precedent here.

I just saw a video on instagram which basically portrayed a rich racist southerner using all the same phrases they used to use for slaves, but for their robot. "We treat this one better because it's a house clanker instead of a field clanker" "If the clanker acts up it knows that it gets stuck in the box" It was meant to be funny but definitely highlighted exactly what you are saying.

Lol Just watched it minutes ago. Was it this one [1]

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/DVH32tTCbuT/?hl=en

Re: New accounts on HN more likely to use em-dashes

#292

Post by Aachen »

OJFord wrote: post #121
atourgates wrote: post #35

Shoutout to my English Major comrades who have been using em-dashes forever, and have had to stop so we don't sound like AI. If AI starts use the New Yorker style diaeresis (umlaut-looking thing when there are two vowels in words like coöperate) I swear I'm gonna lose it.

> New Yorker style diaeresis I was going to say that I respect it, but find it utterly absurd that they do that. But your comment made me look it up again—I had no idea it was just obsolete/archaïc (except in the New Yorker ), I'd thought it was a language feature their 'style' guide had invented.

Dutch does this. Idea is idee, with the e doubled to show it's a long vowel. We make plurals by adding "en". One idee, two... ideeen? Idewhat? So the dots differentiate where the sound changes (long e to short e): ideeën. Approximate pronunciation could be "ID an"

Fun fact: if you have the audacity to correctly write an SMS, you can fit about 70 characters in an SMS. It converts the whole message into multibyte instead of only adding dots to the one character. Or if you use classic spelling for naïve in English, same issue. (We don't dots-ize that in Dutch because ai is not a single sound like ee is, so there's no confusion possible. This is purely English.) I believe in Hanlon's razor so it's probably a coincidence that whoever cooked up this terrible encoding scheme made carriers a lot of money, but I do wonder if this had anything to do with the bug still existing to this day!

Re: New accounts on HN more likely to use em-dashes

#293

Post by jedberg »

kklisura wrote: post #291
jedberg wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just saw a video on instagram which basically portrayed a rich racist southerner using all the same phrases they used to use for slaves, but for their robot. "We treat this one better because it's a house clanker instead of a field clanker" "If the clanker acts up it knows that it gets stuck in the box" It was meant to be funny but definitely highlighted exactly what you are saying.

Lol Just watched it minutes ago. Was it this one [1] [1] https://www.instagram.com/p/DVH32tTCbuT/?hl=en

Yep, that was the one!

Re: New accounts on HN more likely to use em-dashes

#294

Post by e2le »

Lucasoato wrote: post #31
skeptic_ai wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All will be fixed with real id attestation /s

Not exactly, bot farms can still be made with poor people IDs through black market. I don't know what the solution is going to be, but at some point we might forced to accept the reality that on the internet humans and AI won't be distinguishable anymore and adjust our services independently on the client being a person or a machine.

That is a probable outcome however it would at least cap or limit the ability of bot farms to produce industrial sludge content.

Re: New accounts on HN more likely to use em-dashes

#295

Post by fzeroracer »

jatins wrote: post #243

The part that doesn't make sense to me is: Why? As in what are the incentives to use AI to write comments on HN? This is not a platform like Youtube or X where views get you money. Is this just for internet karma?

People have posted their blogs here before and gotten the HN hug of death plus a few hundred comments. It's 2026 and not 2016; HN is a much larger platform than people seem to think it is and HN has significant eyes to be shifted if your posts reach the front page. And given how cheap it is to throw bots at whatever site has open registration it doesn't surprise me to see manipulation here.

Re: New accounts on HN more likely to use em-dashes

#296

Post by aiaio »

xlii wrote: post #193
marginalia_nu wrote: post #157

Fwiw I did some more comparisons, looking for words disproportionately favored by noob comments: word noob new p-value ---------------------------- ai 14.93% 7.87% p=0.00016 actually 12.53% 5.34% p=1.1e-05 code 11.47% 6.04% p=0.00081 real 10.93% 2.95% p=2.6e-08 built 10.93% 2.11% p=2.1e-10 data 8.93% 3.51% p=6.1e-05 tools 7.6% 2.67% p=5.5e-05 agent 7.47% 2.95% p=0.00024 app 7.2% 3.09% p=0.00078 tool 6.8% 1.83% p=8.5e…

Actually building full, real AI app project code across simple API data tools helps built model agents answer an interesting tool — an agent.

You’re absolutely right!

Re: New accounts on HN more likely to use em-dashes

#297

Post by RadiozRadioz »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #157

Fwiw I did some more comparisons, looking for words disproportionately favored by noob comments: word noob new p-value ---------------------------- ai 14.93% 7.87% p=0.00016 actually 12.53% 5.34% p=1.1e-05 code 11.47% 6.04% p=0.00081 real 10.93% 2.95% p=2.6e-08 built 10.93% 2.11% p=2.1e-10 data 8.93% 3.51% p=6.1e-05 tools 7.6% 2.67% p=5.5e-05 agent 7.47% 2.95% p=0.00024 app 7.2% 3.09% p=0.00078 tool 6.8% 1.83% p=8.5e…

The result for "ai" is possibly skewed because it's a far more popular talking point in recent times versus HN's history as a whole.

Re: New accounts on HN more likely to use em-dashes

#298

Post by colechristensen »

mrandish wrote: post #272

Prior to the rise of LLM-written posts and the natural reaction of hair-trigger suspicion, I used to em and en dash fairly often in posts on HN. No reason really other than being a bit of a typography geek who happens to have always used dashes in casual writing instead of semicolons. So when I was setting up a modifier-key keyboard layer with AHK many years ago I put the em dash on modifier+dash just because I could…

My rage–induced habit of ignoring typos caused by the iPhone autocorrect and general abuse of English is suddenly authentic and not lazy and slightly obnoxious (ok maybe it's still those things too)

>I put the em dash on modifier+dash

This is the default on Macs

Re: New accounts on HN more likely to use em-dashes

#299

Post by Razengan »

mrandish wrote: post #272

Prior to the rise of LLM-written posts and the natural reaction of hair-trigger suspicion, I used to em and en dash fairly often in posts on HN. No reason really other than being a bit of a typography geek who happens to have always used dashes in casual writing instead of semicolons. So when I was setting up a modifier-key keyboard layer with AHK many years ago I put the em dash on modifier+dash just because I could…

I also used — and "proper" quotes which macOS/iOS puts in for you anyway

I also like …

This is like ruining swastikas and loading rainbows

Re: New accounts on HN more likely to use em-dashes

#300

Post by natpalmer1776 »

elevation wrote: post #184
d4mi3n wrote: post #50

I'm still salty that I can't use em-dashes anymore for fear of my writing being flagged as AI generated. Been using them for years—it's just `alt+shift+-` on a Mac keyboard and I find them more legible in many fonts compared to the simple dash on the typical numpad. It's so sad to me that good typographical conventions have been co-opted by the zeitgeist of LLMs.

LLM fatigue is real. It's not just em-dash — it's the overall tone of the writing that clues people in. But if your viewpoints and approach are unique, your typesetting won't raise suspicion of machine-generation, except in the most dull of readers. Just be you and it will be fine. If you'd like more tips on writing I'd be happy to help.

This is art. If it weren't so difficult to capture the full context I would literally print and frame this comment.

Edit: I take that back. I'm going to print and frame this comment. It stands on its own well enough, and I'm the only one who's going to see it.

Second Edit: Took a bit to get it formatted in a way I liked, but I have officially placed an order for my local Walmart photo center

https://ibb.co/0NpVMgh

https://ibb.co/F9N9tJM

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