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

(www.gally.net)
358 points tkgally | 2 comments | 30 Aug 25 03:40 UTC | HN request time: 0.426s | 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

1. Andrew_nenakhov ◴[30 Aug 25 20:35 UTC] No.45077791[source]▶
Ironically, I personally prefer good typography, but unless the editor for the desktop app is autocorrecting -- to —, I usually don't bother. But when I type on the phone with screen keyboard, I almost always do bother, even though entering text on mobile is objectively slower and more difficult and often with fewer options.
replies(1): >>45078678 #
2. JdeBP ◴[30 Aug 25 22:50 UTC] No.45078678[source]▶
In this particular case, the options for mobile 'phone keyboards are greater rather than fewer. The em dash is a first class citizen on the "writer" layouts in ThumbKey, for example.

* https://github.com/dessalines/thumb-key