this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
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Greentext

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This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.

Be warned:

If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.

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[–] Boxscape@lemmy.sdf.org 67 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

if so then name your thing

Sort of I guess: em dashes.

Not to talk about, but to use when writing.
Now they are apparently the hallmark of AI-generated crap.

[–] mad_lentil@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 hours ago

I just got into them and I'll be damned if I'll let some toaster ruin a perfectly beautiful bit of punctuation

[–] Daedskin@lemmy.zip 11 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I've never been called out as AI for using them; but if I ever am, I have the strategy of knowing the alt code for them (0151). I even know the shortcut in word to insert one — pressing alt-X with your cursor at the end of "2014". I also have a vscode macro set up that is just an emdash, just in case I'm in a situation where there's not a way I know to insert one.

[–] Mac@mander.xyz 9 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

Alt-codes are for nerds

- 60% gang

I really think more text formatting should do as mobile devices do and just auto convert two hyphens into an em dash. Make it simple, i beg.

[–] rooroo@feddit.org 6 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Two hyphens are an en-dash. Try 3 for em. Filthy casuals!

(Obvious /s but yea don’t mean to insult.)

[–] RavingGrob@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 hours ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key

I set my caps lock key to the Compose Key (ck), and it changed the game for me:

  • — is ck then "---"
  • é is ck then "e" followed by '
  • ° is ck then double "o"
  • ½ is ck then "1" followed by "2"

I'm sure there's many more combinations, but honestly, I never intentionally used CAPS LOCK for anything.

[–] vithigar@lemmy.ca 13 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Same. I learned this was a thing just the other day.

I don't use them often but do find them nicer for parenthetical remarks sometimes.

[–] mad_lentil@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 hours ago

Me too—sometimes