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

(www.gally.net)
358 points tkgally | 1 comments | 30 Aug 25 03:40 UTC | HN request time: 0.2s | 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. rednafi ◴[31 Aug 25 00:33 UTC] No.45079273[source]▶
For most write-ups, I’ve switched to en-dash flanked by two spaces these days. Easier to type and looks less gippitified imo.

> But British usage - instead - uses spaces, so an en-dash or an em-dash is acceptable.