New accounts on HN more likely to use em-dashes • Hacker News Board

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

#331

Post by smallmancontrov » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 7:36 PM UTC

sodacanner wrote: post #308

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…

It really is unfortunate that such a fun piece of punctuation has been effectively gutted. This isn't even really limited to just the em-dash, but I don't know if there's another example of a corporation (or set of them) having such a massive impact on grammar and writing as OpenAI and their ilk have. Entire sentence structures have been effectively blacklisted from use. It's repulsive.

It's not just repulsive — it's the complete destruction of tool through intense overuse!

Speaking of overusing something until it becomes cringe, has anyone shown their kids Firefly? Does it still hold up after the Joss Whedon signature bathos (and other tics) became a tentpole of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and created an abundance of cultural antibodies?

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

#332

Post by altairprime » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 7:36 PM UTC

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…

How dire the literacy crisis, that chatbots are their only exposure to composition.

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

#333

Post by whamlastxmas » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 7:37 PM UTC

vjerancrnjak wrote: post #314

On reddit it's even worse, I feel like Reddit is internally having their own bots for engagement bait. As someone who loves LaTeX, I can't imagine ever spending so much time on typography on online forums, italics, bold, emdashes, headers, sections. I quit reddit and will quit hn as well if situation worsens.

I have the sneaking suspicion that reddit has allowed and facilitated astroturfing for over a decade. As in, providing accounts, eliminating rate limits, artificially boosting posts and comments, and aggressively shadow banned contrary opinions. This is definitely a known phenomenon on a auto moderator level but I bet reddit ownership is complicit in it too

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

#334

Post by adamtaylor_13 » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 7:38 PM UTC

AI has taken this from me—I will never forgive.

But seriously, I loved the em-dash and now every time I use it (which is too often) I have to wonder if my words will immediately be written off.

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

#335

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 7:38 PM UTC

gkoberger wrote: post #278

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 do agree... I sometimes use worse grammar (like that ellipses) and leave in typos just so my comments feel more "real" now.

[deleted]

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

#336

Post by jjgreen » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 7:40 PM UTC

chasd00 wrote: post #247

mroche wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> super-comma This is the first time I've ever heard the character ";" referred to as such. It's always been "semi-colon" to me, is this a region/culture difference? I'm not saying you're wrong, I find it interesting.

no it's always been semicolon, the "super-comma" comes from describing how to use it. "It's similar to a comma but like a super comma."

Huh? I've always understood that the clause after the semicolon is peripheral; the meaning of the whole sentence does not change without it.

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

#337

Post by hsbauauvhabzb » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 7:41 PM UTC

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…

Can you articulate on the column meanings more? Noob new means nothing to me.

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

#338

Post by mike_hearn » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 7:41 PM UTC

smallmancontrov wrote: post #331

sodacanner wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really is unfortunate that such a fun piece of punctuation has been effectively gutted. This isn't even really limited to just the em-dash, but I don't know if there's another example of a corporation (or set of them) having such a massive impact on grammar and writing as OpenAI and their ilk have. Entire sentence structures have been effectively blacklisted from use. It's repulsive.

It's not just repulsive — it's the complete destruction of tool through intense overuse! Speaking of overusing something until it becomes cringe, has anyone shown their kids Firefly? Does it still hold up after the Joss Whedon signature bathos (and other tics) became a tentpole of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and created an abundance of cultural antibodies?

The writing of Firefly was top notch and still holds up great. The MCU tried to imitate the style and mostly failed. But it helped that Firefly was much less overwrought in general.

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

#339

Post by AlyssaRowan » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 7:41 PM UTC

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 do a similar thing — also with AHK! — and I don’t intend to stop. I think probably the AI/LLM bubble will pop before I consider changing my habits there.

Tip: Patterns like “It’s not just X, it’s Y” are a more telltale sign of LLM slop. I assume they probably trained on too much marketing blurb at some point and now it’s stuck.

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

#340

Post by Imustaskforhelp » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 7:43 PM UTC

gkoberger wrote: post #278

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 do agree... I sometimes use worse grammar (like that ellipses) and leave in typos just so my comments feel more "real" now.

soon were gonna be the ones adding random typos and grammer errors just to blend in. i skip apostrophes and mispell words on purpose already. its strange how fast sloppy writing starts feeling natural

(This above line itself was written by AI itself: https://www.kimi.com/share/19c96516-4032-8b73-8000-0000f45eb...)

I don't know if worse grammar could make a difference aside from removing false negatives (ie. nowadays people with good grammar are questioned if they are LLM's or not) but this itself doesn't mean that worse grammar itself means its written by a human. (This paragraph is written by me, a human, Hi :D)