by lapsis_beeftech on 5/26/25, 12:13 PM
The semicolon has always been the neglected underdog of punctuation; I try to sneak one in wherever I think I can get away with it.
by vonnik on 5/26/25, 8:08 PM
The crazy thing about semicolons is that they were once common in books intended for young adults/middle readers. See E. Nesbit and co. When I read the childrens' authors of early 20C Britain, I often think their writing is more demanding that books marketed to today's adults.
by southernplaces7 on 5/27/25, 4:45 AM
Good riddance. I'll go with what Vonnegut said on them.
“Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.”
by phoe-krk on 5/26/25, 2:45 PM
It's certainly a crisis in the Lisp world; everyone seems to be writing fewer comments.
by lemonwaterlime on 5/26/25, 2:54 PM
Outside of coding, I seldom use semicolons; however, they do have their uses in certain cases—when there are two complete thoughts in the sentence.
by derbOac on 5/26/25, 3:04 PM
by AceyMan on 5/26/25, 6:34 PM
"I have great respect for the semicolon; it is a mighty handy little fellow."
— Abraham Lincoln
by DaSHacka on 5/26/25, 6:21 PM
I'm more curious about the usage of em/en dash, most people in my life had no idea it existed.
I myself only discovered them for the first time when reading a punctuation site to ensure I was using semicolons grammatically correctly.
by pfdietz on 5/26/25, 12:07 PM
by adverbly on 5/26/25, 2:34 PM
Personally I have been using em dash(or some other kind of dash) for everything these days.
I know it's probably wrong, but I got the feeling that people won't roast me over a fire if I use it incorrectly.
by dusted on 5/26/25, 12:05 PM
I think they forgot to include *.js *.ts *.c *.cpp *.java
by sandra_vu on 5/26/25, 11:30 AM
with where we are heading, we might see the 90% drop in the use of –
by Geste on 5/26/25, 4:35 PM
So I guess we are doing our part here ? Trying to sneak one semicolon for the count ?
I'm not sure even when to even use them correctly.
They always fall flat or make sound pretentious; both of which I try to avoid.
by dowager_dan99 on 5/26/25, 4:09 PM
I will miss the semicolon, but I'm more concerned about punctuation in general. If I punctuate a text message my teenage daughter will respond "are you mad at me"
by nunez on 5/26/25, 6:28 PM
The semicolon was always a confusing symbol; it makes even less sense in typical text-style conversations on phones. you can use a period in its place most of the time.
by eimrine on 5/26/25, 12:15 PM
I would like to say this about colons.
Semicolons means the sentence is too hard, sometimes it will look easier with parentheses.
by qgin on 5/26/25, 2:14 PM
The utility : pretentiousness ratio is too low.