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stego-tech | 4 days ago

I had no idea what I was using were called “EM-dashes” until the AI bubble. I just used them to reflect pauses in my speech for tangents - an old habit from my IRC days.

Incidentally, some folks reported my stuff for potential AI generation and I had to respond to the mods about it. So that was kinda funny, if also sad to hear that some folks thought I was a bot.

I’m a dinosaur, not a robot dinosaur. I’m nowhere near that cool, alas.

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seabrookmx|4 days ago

But the em-dash is a different character. I think even those that use a pause would just opt for - on their keyboard, whereas the em-dash — requires additional work on most (all?) keyboard layouts. It's _not_ more work for an AI though hence why it's a tell.

devb|4 days ago

> I just used them to reflect pauses in my speech for tangents - and old habit from my IRC days.

The tell here is that you used a hyphen, not an em-dash.

stego-tech|4 days ago

Okay, see, that's context even I forget, but you're right and bears repeating:

This `-` is a hyphen, which I love, even if I'm fairly sure I'm not using it correctly in grammar a lot of the time.

This `--` is an EM-Dash, apparently, which is also what I never use but I also thought was just a hyphen in a different context (incorrect!).

Aachen|4 days ago

How did you make the character without googling it?