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Chat is a text only community for casual conversation, please keep shitposting to the absolute minimum. This is intended to be a separate space from c/chapotraphouse or the daily megathread. Chat does this by being a long-form community where topics will remain from day to day unlike the megathread, and it is distinct from c/chapotraphouse in that we ask you to engage in this community in a genuine way. Please keep shitposting, bits, and irony to a minimum.

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— is easy to type and it's unfortunate that it is considered an indicator of AI generation (hexbear.net)

submitted 1 day ago by quarrk@hexbear.net to c/chat@hexbear.net

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You literally can just long press the normal hyphen on the iOS keyboard, probably similar in Android

So, you saw an em dash in a sentence and immediately screamed “AI!”? Hold up. That long, dramatic line — yeah, that one — has been around way before ChatGPT slid into your DMs. Writers have been using em dashes for centuries to spice things up, create vibes, and break the rules in the coolest way possible.

Here’s the tea: the em dash is a tool, not a tell. Just because an AI uses it doesn’t mean it’s some secret signature. You know who else uses em dashes? Literally every author who’s ever wanted to sound clever, casual, or just a little chaotic.

So next time you spot an em dash, don’t panic. It’s punctuation, not a personality test.

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[–] tocopherol@hexbear.net 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

When I see the short dash like in your text it doesn't read as a long pause to me but almost like you're combining care-stop, it doesn't have the same effect as –. I've seen them used in articles plenty before the rise of GPT text. I'm not sure it is necessarily a reliable tell for AI.

[–] quarrk@hexbear.net 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

it doesn't have the same effect as –

Not sure if you’re trolling, but that is an en dash, the middle child of the dashes. Used specifically for indicating ranges. E.g. year 1900–1902, numbers 0–9. The meaning is different from the slightly longer em dash

[–] tocopherol@hexbear.net 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Ah thanks, I'm on mobile, I wasn't sure which was the —em— on my keyboard, I don't use any of these highfalutin text lines normally

[–] ChestRockwell@hexbear.net 5 points 1 day ago

It's really not. The emdash also auto changes in word if you use a - then type something.

Since I've started writing in markdown I have to do double-- to auto complete into emdash, but in word it's coded in AFAIK