If you're trying to understand the impact of mastodon.social's new Terms of Service (which will also be the template for new instances once 4.4 is released) ... well, you're not alone. Here's a few discussions that I've found useful.

@neil has a blog post with Some thoughts on mastodon.social's updated terms

@sarahjamielewis has a thread at https://mastodon.social/@sarahjamielewis/114699476927561899

@mcc looks at the lack of a termination clause at https://mastodon.social/@mcc/114699201989866226

And here's the actual text of the new Terms of Service - https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/17/mastodon-updates-its-terms-to-prohibit-ai-model-training/

#mastodon #fediverse

OMG, em dashes are not a sign of AI writing!

I kept hoping this myth would burn itself out, but no — the idea that em dashes are a sign of AI writing just keeps spreading. I finally couldn't take it anymore, so I crashed a segment into the latest Grammar Girl podcast.

The whole thing seems to have taken off after a popular GenZ culture podcast advised people to stop using the “the ChatGPT hyphen.” (And I have to confess it kills me that they didn't even know the name for it.) 🧵

Someone else brought this up, and I think it’s true:

The online fight over em-dashes is really about neurotypical people trying to enforce their preferred mode of communication unto neurodivergent people.

That is, if you don’t talk exactly like them, they’ll literally say you’re not human.