chat

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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.

As with all communities posts need to abide by the code of conduct, additionally moderators will remove any posts or comments deemed to be inappropriate.

Thank you and happy chatting!

founded 3 years ago

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

submitted 2 days 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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[–] ChestRockwell@hexbear.net 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

In high school, an English teacher once told us she over used em dashes and her teacher told her you can't just dash through your papers. I tried to avoid their over use after that, which made me learn the other ways to organize my (chaotic) thoughts.

Needless to say, I think that it's a tell of young writers more than AI. The overuse is because the author isn't comfortable with using colons, parenthesis, or commas - the things that the em dash can substitute for grammatically.

A good writer understands offsetting with a dash adds more emphasis than commas (neutral) or parenthesis (lower emphasis). Overuse is a sign of either immaturity or AI. Since there's a lot of immature writers on the internet (and have been since the eternal summer began), it really isn't useful as a tell online.