The Mighty Hyphen

[PlayaCharacter]

Recently a few players have started using a hyphen at the end of their chat text to indicate that they are done typing that message, but are not done speaking.

This is a wonderful habit and it eliminates so much OOC chat text / lag confusion. So much player time has been saved from needless interruption by the use of the hyphen. I highly recommend it.

[petey512]

(I'm pretty sure I was one of the first to start doing this. Not sure how the practice started, it just suddenly seemed like good sense. Highly recommend it. Makes things so much easier.)

[Inquisitor]

No. I was the first.

[Dillusionist]

The ellipse is superior.

Good syntax can definitely help roleplay. On a related note, I wanted to add that it really bothers me. Where people insert random line-breaks into their speech in order to get more air time in people's chat windows. I've always found it really obnoxious and it makes it -incredibly- difficult to follow other PC's roleplay.

Courteous player: Hey everyone. The Spellguard are mean and we should rebel because they're gasing us and the gas is really Mist and I'm pretty sure their leader is a Thrall!

Jerk: HEY!
Jerk: STOP!
Jerk: LISTEN TO ME!
Jerk: MAD MARGE
Jerk: IS
Jerk: EVIL

[Vlaid]

I only RP in giant block of texts, all lesser emotes are crushed.

[Ladocicea]

The DM password to EFU:R is-

[Aspirinsmurf]

The choice of hyphen versus ellipsis for this type of effect has been debated in screenwriting circles since forever. So... yeah. They were first. :P

[Twelve]

Why is everyone mad at " ... "?

[Inquisitor]

Did anyone at first see 'The Mighty Hymen" instead of 'Hyphen'? :(

[LiAlH4]

Ellipses are fine; I will only very, very rarely critique styilistic choices unless they are glaring or disruptive.

That said, I strongly encourage everyone to avoid the lone ellipsis - three or more dots without nearby text. "..." in the place of an emote is not descriptive.

[AKMatt]

I was using the hyphen back in 2006, fools-

[AKMatt]

and ellipses at the end of an emote are fine, but on their own make you a scumlord.

[Pentaxius]

I'm a huge fan of the the mighty hyphen (if you haven't noticed by now...)

For me, the hyphen serves a very different function than the ellipse. I use them mainly to convey the dynamics of a description / speech pattern. In this context, the Hyphen is fast and confident and the Ellipse is slow and hesitant. Do you agree?

Because In the end, what matters is the degree of consistence between how people  perceive the punctuation marks with regards to text dynamics.

[Corrigo]

I generally use the ellipsis to indicate that I'm still talking.


The hyphen I use to denote a sudden break in conversation. For example, stopping mid-sentence because you are interrupted somehow.

[Pup]

I really don't see what's wrong with the literary "..." to indicate stopping while interrupted, pausing in a long speech, or indicating a break before an emote.

I have no problem with the hyphens, I understand them fine, but any reader should understand "..." just as easily or more than a hyphen, as a hyphen has many more actual writing uses.

Wow, I used "hyphen" a lot...

------Hyphen.