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The real answer actually depends. In cases where you want to visually emphasize the ratio between any pair of values, you should start from zero. In cases where only the difference between any pair of values matters and the ratio is meaningless you can start at a different baseline. A surprising number of measures are interesting in their ratio though, so we generally prefer a zero-based chart.

For stock prices, starting the y axis wherever is aesthetically pleasing makes some sense because everybody will have a different non-zero cost basis for their investment, and the graphs need to be able to clearly depict fluctuations that are minor on a percentage basis. For something like the em-dash prevalence on HN, the most meaningful question is whether it has doubled, tripled, or whatever relative to the pre-LLM corpus, and that's most clearly visually depicted by starting the y axis at precisely zero.

> In general, we want graphs to focus on the area of variation.

Visually, this is vastly exaggerating the variation. Actual usage did not even double.

> take a look at just about any stock chart

Honestly, I hate that about stock charts. They adjust the axes and scales so that the graph itself provides no information. Did it go up 1 point? 200 points? 5%? 50%? You can’t tell, because the graph is just a scale free squiggle.

> Now she's been accused of using AI for her pieces.

Read the observation that AI was (presumably) trained on the 'best' (or at least 'quality') writing, and so if good writers tended to use em-dashes, it should not be surprising that AI generates text with it.

But, if one's personal style included using them, you should continue to do so because why should you dial down your own voice just because someone else may be mimicking it?

em-dashes help flow ideas better than other means. For whatever reason, it's easier to process in my brain a comment with an em-dash rather than trying to split the idea into separate succinct sentences.

You can do small succinct sentences, but style-wise it sucks for longer passages.

Press Ctrl+Shift+U to enter Unicode entry mode in GTK controls, then enter the code point for the em dash, 2014. That will produce '—'.

Although I still prefer the traditional ASCII double-dash -- easier to type, and less potential for character encoding issues. Also, LLMs don't seem to use it at all.

Yes. Defanging smart quotes, double-dashing em's, spelling out numbers, and swearing off emojis. Next up, double-spaced sentences.

A reminder that according to the HN guidelines, there's no need to use underscores or other annotations to emphasize words.

I use the double dash.

This gets corrected to an emdash.

I get annoyed and put the double dash back in.

Sometimes swearing a little or grumbling “HEY. I typed what I typed” at it helps a little.

I don’t even know how many times in 20-30+ years I’ve checked some box in system or program preferences begging it to knock that off.

This is the real reason I already loathe and avoid the emdash (nitpicking over a personal stylistic preference I won’t relent on even if I’m wrong) but I can’t be the only one this happens to.

Getting piled on and called “AI” really doesn’t ease my distaste for it, but .. do people.. not write enough to understand that it brute forces its way into human copy as well?

and yes. phone posting on HN. will insert them. to my dismay.

The other one that ticks me off endlessly but I’ve finally said to hell with it and just let it go?

Turning " into “.

(Writer. Not a very good one and I’m not here to steer anyone to that drivel. But at least I’m a human one.)

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Long press on - on both iOS and android (Gboard)

What is it that you like about it specifically? If you’re not picky about the choice of modifier key, you can configure the so-called “level 3 shift key” and have the em dash on the hyphen key at level four (both L3 shift and L2 aka normal shift pressed). For instance, on GNOME Wayland I have “Input Source” = “English (Western European AltGr dead keys)”, “Alternate Characters Key” (GNOME lingo for the L3 shift) = “Right Alt”, so the em dash is RAlt-Shift-hyphen.

The main use of an em-dash can also be done with an en-dash set open, and different style guides have different preferences for which should be used.

All the time. So funny, it's so automatic I genuinely didn't even realize I was using them in a comment about em dashes. My comment history has been full of them for over a decade by now... and I think you can tell which comments are from my phone vs my laptop by whether they're converted to — or not.

Not even close. It's named after the em drive, after how fast it helps your thoughts flow to written word.