Nobody needs to hear this, but…
The "star" key on a telephone is actually represented by a sextile ⚹ according to ITU recommendation E.161
Many smartphone dialers get this wrong and use an asterisk *, full-width asterisk ＊, or asterisk operator ∗
— Open image attachment 1 of 1
Replying to @LilahTovMoon@tech.lgbt
@LilahTovMoon this is as bad as all the dashes (- – —)
Replying to @Dangerous_beans@aus.social
@Dangerous_beans There are so many great dashes!
- hyphen minus
﹣ small hyphen minus
－ full width hyphen minus
− minus sign
soft hyphen (yeah, there's an invisible hyphen)
‐ hyphen
‑ non-breaking hyphen
‒ figure dash
– en dash
— em dash
﹘ small em dash
― horizontal bar or quotation dash
⁓ swung dash (which is not a tilde)
⸚ hyphen with diaeresis
⸺ two em dash
⸻ three em dash
⹀ double hyphen (not an equal sign)
゠ katakana double hyphen
〰 wavy dash
︱ vertical em dash
The possibilities are endless! Well, finite, but way larger than you'd think.
Replying to @LilahTovMoon@tech.lgbt
@LilahTovMoon @Dangerous_beans wait so the quotation dash is not the same as the em dash? I've been doing it all wrong 😮
Replying to @autistic_enby@hachyderm.io
@autistic_enby @LilahTovMoon @Dangerous_beans
Actually in British English an aside might use spaced en dash,, US might use unspaced em dash. The em dash would be for cut of speech.
But there is huge variation and house styles. A quotation wouldn't use dashes.
Replying to @EI9FEB@mastodon.radio
@EI9FEB @LilahTovMoon @Dangerous_beans I mean the use in quotations like this:
"this is the quote"
— this is the author, 2026
Replying to @autistic_enby@hachyderm.io
@autistic_enby @LilahTovMoon @Dangerous_beans
That's a author for a quotation, not the quote.
Yes, I use an em dish with no space for that, but if it's a preamble it will not have quote marks.
A style guide helps consistency as there is often no single correct usage. Nosy vs nosey, single or double quotes for dialogue. I think British & Irish English is more flexible than the USA. Webster is prescriptive, Oxford reflects usage.
I like to keep it simple, so I only use - – — in regular text.