there's a use for the em dash. it is mainly on reports and literature. i just don't see it on the casual internet much.
from what i read, it is the use of realm and delve that have strong leanings of ai bias.
this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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That’s why I use en dashes instead of em dashes when writing with Helvetica; it’s too long anyway.
The whole em dash argument is bullshit propagated by LinkedIn lunatics with zero knowledge of AI, writing or typography.
Different types of dashes/hyphens have different uses. People who take care of their copy and understand the nuances of punctuation use em dashes regularly. People who are in a rush, typing on phones or simply who don't know any better, put the same en dash everywhere.
Em dashes is one of the things that LLMs actually do right for a change. Calling text with em dashes weird, unnatural or ai generated is like making fun of someone for using proper grammar or hygiene.
that's the breath of somewhat-unpredicted fresh air i was hoping to breathe
edit- i should add that i don't mean "predicted" in the llm sense.
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(10 replies)
Most people aren't taking the time to type in ctrl+shift+u+2+0+1+4 when a regular minus-dash would get the point across with a single keystroke. But there is enough of a distinction that some people (like you and I) will use the proper punctuation when there is an opportunity to do so.
What I find far more suspicious is the unicode hyphen, because no human would be able to tell the difference, and would therefore always choose to input a minus.
Not sure, if that's a Linux thing, but I can press Alt Gr and - to get an en-dash, as well Alt Gr and Shift and - to get an em-dash.
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If I hold the - on my phone I get –—¯
You don’t have type all of that. E.g. on iOS you type two dashes and it is automatically converted to an emdash.
I promise I’m not AI when I test this out:
Beep boop bop—I’m a computer!
Regular dash: -
Em dash: —
(Apparently you can also hold the dash key down and it will give you a couple of different dash options and also a dot)
Fair, but then again, iOS autocorrect isn't exactly not AI.
it’s not
It isn't not not AI? Double-negatives have thrown me for a loop here.
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I don't know about that, but if you use three hyphens, the Lemmy Web UI will render it as an em-dash, and you can remain human!
EDIT: Unfortunately, nobody appears to have made a Threadiverse community analogous to Reddit's /r/totallynotrobots.
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Any “people” talking about simple ways to detect AI are actually AI bots trying to throw us off.
aw, you got me! dot dot dot DASH dot dot do dot dot