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358 points tkgally | 1 comments | 30 Aug 25 03:40 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source

The use of the em dash (—) now raises suspicions that a text might have been AI-generated. Inspired by a suggestion from dang [1], I created a leaderboard of HN users according to how many of their posts before November 30, 2022—that is, before the release of ChatGPT—contained em dashes. Dang himself comes in number 2—by a very slim margin.

Credit to Claude Code for showing me how to search the HN database through Google BigQuery and for writing the HTML for the leaderboard.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45053933

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chatmasta ◴[30 Aug 25 14:36 UTC] No.45075036[source]▶

>>45071722 (OP) #

I just realized I’ve been using en-dash this whole time. This is an identity crisis.

replies(2): >>45075055 #>>45075363 #

1. Rendello ◴[30 Aug 25 15:14 UTC] No.45075363[source]▶

>>45075036 #

Me too, I had 11 hits for the `en`, 7 for "--", and only 4 for the `em` using the curl script:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45074990

Also see the relevant XKCD:

https://www.xkcd.com/3126/

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Show HN: Hacker News em dash user leaderboard pre-ChatGPT