New accounts on HN 10x more likely to use EM-dashes
Hacker News
February 25, 2026
AI-Generated Deep Dive Summary
Hacker News (HN) has recently seen a surge in bot activity, particularly from newly registered accounts. These accounts exhibit distinct patterns, such as using em-dashes, arrows, and other symbols at a rate 10 times higher than established users—17.47% versus 1.83%. Additionally, new accounts are more likely to mention AI and large language models (LLMs), with mentions occurring 18.67% of the time compared to 11.8% for regular users. This surge in bot-like behavior raises concerns about the platform's integrity and the quality of discussions.
The author noticed this trend by observing comments that seemed disjointed or irrelevant, such as "13 60 well and t6ctctfuvuh7hgu
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Originally published on Hacker News on 2/25/2026