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1. Embed this notice
   Clive Thompson (clive@saturation.social)'s status on Wednesday, 16-Apr-2025 00:32:51 JST Clive Thompson

   Apparently the use of m-dashes is now seen -- by some -- as a mark of genAI writing?

   https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/chatgpt-hypen-em-dash-ai-writing-1235314945/

   Man I dunno I use *ton* of m-dashes!

   In fact a couple of years ago I created a little web tool that let you take a piece of your writing and strip out *just* the punctuation ...

   1/x

   • Embed this notice
     Kim Scheinberg (kims@mas.to)'s status on Wednesday, 16-Apr-2025 00:33:23 JST Kim Scheinberg

     in reply to

     • Lauren Weinstein

     @lauren @clive
     I am such a prolific abuser of em-dashes, my old boss used to fine me for slipping them into quarterly letters

     When I first got to Mastodon, I was so distraught that '--' didn't autoconvert to em-dash that I ended up doing this

   • Embed this notice
     Lauren Weinstein (lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org)'s status on Wednesday, 16-Apr-2025 00:33:24 JST Lauren Weinstein

     in reply to

     @clive I have -- basically since the start of my writing -- extensively used "--", probably more than I should, but it's a habit and narrative style punctuation I prefer. I never actually use em dashes myself, though some platforms will automatically convert "--" to an em dash by default. I mainly edit in ASCII editors, and of course em dash isn't even supported there. I also prefer "--" since I know for sure how it will be displayed to the reader, while there is still less assurance with em dashes. If em dashes are now considered a sign of AI-written text due to their use by ChatGPT, etc., that's fairly hilarious.

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     anderbill (band@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 16-Apr-2025 00:57:12 JST anderbill

     in reply to

     • Lauren Weinstein

     @clive @lauren re: "--" thanks for the reminder to keep it ASCII.

   • Embed this notice
     Clive Thompson (clive@saturation.social)'s status on Wednesday, 16-Apr-2025 00:57:14 JST Clive Thompson

     in reply to

     • Lauren Weinstein

     @lauren

     I'm the same way -- I just type two dashes together, with a space before and after

     I think it's a vestige of the fact that I first began doing word-processing using DOS software that was not yet WYSIWYG

     no m-dash was possible -- two dashes was one's only alternative

     the habit stuck