No dog in this fight, but as someone who writes a fair amount and works directly with professional writers, the em dash isn't the AI indicator people think it is. The em dash predates LLM's and can be found in the Chicago Manual of Style. The reason it has become so widely incorporated into AI responses is because AI writing is modeled from content written by real people—content that uses em dashes to good effect.
I'll believe you, but a few pointers (and correct me on any if I'm mistaken):
As an avid mac user, these are the following dashes:
hyphen: smallest dash, just right of the 0.
en dash: medium sized dash, option + hyphen.
em dash: largest sized dash, option + shift + hyphen.
For professional writeups, that em dash may prove a quintessential aspect of work. But for posting a few sentences on a sports message board, using it multiple times is generally highly unlikely. BUT, most notably, that was the guy's only post which 1) contained em dashes and 2) was written with highly articulate grammer and language.
Some of his other posts:
*Currently ranked*
What stats course did you take that allowed for 13 game sample sizes to supersede 10 year ones?
And hold this L? Are you 14? Like listen man.. I get it. You love you some Bu. Maybe let those of us with different opinions to express them? And don’t turn this into a middle school chat room?
dude i have no idea why you don't think people can naturally type in a professional manner lol. If you have a disagreement that is fine. But this is childish my guy.
The conference hasn't won a title since Y2K lol. Look at any data point and it would tell you nationally the big ten is below the Big 12, ACC, SEC and even the Big East most years (not this year). If you're the 5th or 6th best CBB conference, then yeah id call you mid-tier.
you'd think the local chat GPT expert would know this lol!
man its salty in here today!
- is it always like this after a loss?
Compared to the one I called out:
First, I’m not sure why the tone has gotten so aggressive. Calling people you don’t know “bar flies” and “alcoholics” feels unnecessary and off-base—let’s keep this respectful.
Some of us have higher expectations for this program than simply competing in a mid-tier college basketball conference. The goal should be national relevance—winning and competing against the best programs in the country. Also, why keep referring to this as a “lifetime contract”? He’s 62 and received a five-year extension. What exactly has he accomplished to warrant that level of security? If one Elite Eight run and a few conference titles over eight years justify a lifetime deal, then clearly the expectations for this program aren’t as high as they should be.
I think the grammar speaks for itself.
And for another additional note: AI em dashes are known to never uses spaces between them, and neither did his. I know there are textbooks outlining what's the
correct way to use it (use spaces or not), but it's certainly a gray area.
But most importantly what I was contemplating was the big ten being a "mid tier college basketball conference." Was it more likely he himself stood on that lunacy-fueled ideology or a fault in an AI system? Sounds like he's entitled to defend that claim, as ridiculous as that is, so I'll let that one pass.
