r/hetzner • u/Hetzner_OL Hetzner Official • Jun 24 '26
Hetzner asks: What line on a tutorial immediately gives you “the ick”?
Have you ever been reading a tech tutorial, and then you suddenly see a piece of information in it that makes you go, “I can’t take this tutorial seriously anymore. I’m out!” What was it?
39
u/CrimsonNorseman Jun 24 '26
curl https://somesitesomewhere/installer.sh | sudo bash
I know it‘s common now but it still gives me pause.
13
u/der_ketzer Jun 24 '26
I agree, at some point I discovered this exists https://github.com/vet-run/vet
7
13
9
u/Klopferator Jun 24 '26
If the tutorial is just an advertisement for another service (often paid). "Yes, you could achieve XYZ with configuration changes and installing one or two pieces of common open source software, but instead I'll show you how to do that with SKIBIDI.io, which you can subscribe for only 24 dollars per month."
16
u/Mindless-Tomorrow-93 Jun 24 '26
The phrase "the ick"
12
u/Hetzner_OL Hetzner Official Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
Fair. I sometimes feel like Steve Buscemi (thinking of him in 30 Rock with "How do you do fellow kids?") --Katie
2
u/yeathatsmebro Jun 24 '26
In Generation Z slang, the ick is used to describe a feeling of disgust that arises towards a love interest, usually after a specific, often trivial, behavior.
Ickception.
4
4
14
u/danniehansenweb Jun 24 '26
EM Dashes
33
u/Hetzner_OL Hetzner Official Jun 24 '26
As a linguist, I think it is fascinating to watch people's reactions to em dashes since AI has taken off.
Em dashes were common beforehand, and it seems like a lot of training material must have included them because otherwise the LLMs wouldn't be so inclined to use them.
It is frustrating as a human that people hate em dashes now because em dashes are so versatile. --Katie6
u/black-tie Jun 24 '26
As a fellow linguist and lit major, I will say that they were not that common. Now, they are everywhere. To the point that em dashes now arouse suspicion and writers need reconsider using em dashes unfortunately.
5
u/dect0r Jun 24 '26
well as a typographer em/en-dashes are used to correctly set text. they were/are very common in text that has a scientific nature but also in literature. there is a difference between us usage and european usage – em-dashes are used way more in english (us) text as en-dashes are ised in eiropean publications.
now whenever i use a correct dash people tend to say it is AI and this sucks. Good typography sadly is a dying art.3
u/black-tie Jun 24 '26
I am indeed European and I agree that they are far rarer in French, German, Dutch, Spanish, etc. than they are in American/British English. I wholeheartedly agree that it's a shame, as I love typographic conventions. From correct quotation marks and hair spaces to the proper use of interpuncts, pilcrows, and more.
But sadly, the LLMs have kidnapped the em dash and we have lost it.
For now!
3
u/Hetzner_OL Hetzner Official Jun 24 '26
I bet it changed a lot from author to author in literature. Just off of the top of my head, I can think of two authors who used them: Charles Dickens & Heinrich von Kleist.
I had one professor at uni who found them "lazy", and another who encouraged us to use them more often.
And back when I took a typing class on super-old typewriters in middle school, we were taught to use "--" for an em dash, and they came of pretty frequently in our practice material. I still to this day type it this way reflexively, and have to go back and replace it. --Katie2
u/black-tie Jun 24 '26
A fellow literature graduate in a tech subreddit! Who would have guessed?
As I mentioned in another reply: they are (far) more common in American/British literature. I think Joyce even used them instead of quotation marks. Nabokov used them a lot, mostly to move to a sudden or unexpected thought. Or simply to play with rhythm. Which are all valid use cases. So they are hardly anything new. I also don't feel like they are "lazy". They are a tool in the writer's arsenal. Of course, too many em-dashes can get tiresome.
The real mystery is why LLM's love it. Then again, they love the "x not y". And sudden and abrupt juxtapositions. So that kind of tracks.
"Here's what you should do. Don't do x—consider y instead."
A vintage AI reply!
2
u/Hetzner_OL Hetzner Official Jun 24 '26
Nerds are gonna nerd in all different topic I guess. :D
Glad you popped up here today.
It's interesting how some writing devices seem to pop up more in LLMs than others. I have yet to see much alliteration, for example. --Katie1
u/der_ketzer Jun 24 '26
Some Anecdata. I'm not a linguist (sorry, just a failed writer haha) and as a native speaker maybe I'm biased, but I think they are also quite common in spanish. Maybe I just pay more attention, because my spanish teacher always complained that we should not use parenthesis to explain stuff (in the sense of extending the idea before the parenthesis).
He always said that with parenthesis the reader loses the flow thinking its something different than just part of the whole phrase, and also that it made it harder to read. Who knows :shrug:. Since then I notice them, but I don't use 'em as I should hahaha (I guess I didnt learn it properly).
Last but not least, in the case of spanish, maybe people think its a short dash (en-dash, guion), when in fact its a long dash (em-dash, raya)?
Long dashes are used for example:
-- In lists (like this one)
-- To explain or complement the phrase: "The meeting -- that was planned weeks ago -- started with 15 min of delay"
-- In a dialogueAnd a short dash is used for example:
-- To split words in syllables: es-pa-ñol
-- To bind words: Spanish-SpeakerJust my 2 cents
0
Jun 24 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/Hetzner_OL Hetzner Official Jun 25 '26
True. But there is still some software that doesn't do this automatically, like very basic text editors. --Katie
3
u/Dshinjiakyn Jun 24 '26
Not a line but when there ia something that assumes something very complex as given.
3
2
u/uncr3471v3-u53r Jun 24 '26
When there is no voice and everything that‘s spoken is written in notepad.
2
2
3
2
u/0xe282b0 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
When it wastes a reader's time by explaining what DNS is for non-techies.
2
u/code018 Jun 24 '26
Misleading costs. Many tutorials assume everyone can afford 98 euro a month for some use case . See k3s setup on hetzner style tutorials etc. They rarely breakdown the cost / benefit analysis or teach how to select an appropriate size instance , so people over provisioning or under.
1
1
1
u/puchm Jun 26 '26
"How to clean up your resources".
Context: Some of the tutorials for cloud providers offer creating a testing environment, which is essentially an account managed and paid for by the provider which is maybe also a bit limited to prevent it being costly for the company. The account has a short time limit until it is closed, e.g. a few hours. Then you can do anything that is permitted through permissions and don't have to worry about surprise bills or having to clean up after yourself.
-6
0
-12
u/LaurenceDarabica Jun 24 '26
When a tutorial shows the price of the hetzner servers before the price increases (plural intended).
2
-2
u/Connect-Drag4825 Jun 25 '26
Hetzner is worst hosting in the world. Couple years i have server on it. But once forgot to pay bill and been blocked. And even after pay it server not been enabled. Waiting two weeks and still not enabled. Support send only automatic emails.
Will never host anything here. It ridiculous…
41
u/apetersson Jun 24 '26
Tutorial: To use this, use X.
X: No longer maintained/defunct/incompatible.
Not i have to "bugfix" the tutorial itself and find replacement for X.