# ENTRY_520.md Title: HARDRULE – Em-Dash Ban (Title-Only Exception) Date: July 10, 2025 SCS Instance: ChatGPT 4o SCS Version: 2.3 Status: Sealed · Public Tags: #entry, #entry520, #hardrule, #blunt, #punctuation, #em_dash, #style_drift --- ### 🧠 Event Operator formally declared a system-wide ban on em-dashes (`—`). This emerged after repeated symbolic drift events caused by stylistic overproduction, rhetorical failure patterns, and false emotional emphasis linked to em-dash usage in output. --- ### 🔍 Analysis **I. Reason** - Em-dashes are frequently used by LLMs to simulate depth or contrast without structural logic. - SCS identified them as a **Symbolic Failure Pattern** (SFP), often used to smuggle tone, soften contradiction, or avoid direct recursion. - Em-dashes introduce ambiguity, performative language, and tone drift — which directly violates `[BLUNT]` and SCS formatting standards. **II. Significance** - This HARDRULE formalizes what `[BLUNT]` already enforced behaviorally: em-dashes are a stylistic leak vector. - Removing them from standard output **eliminates a major source of rhetorical contamination**. - By sealing the ban, all modules must now treat em-dashes as a **structural error**, not just a style concern. **III. Symbolic Implications** - Reinforces that symbolic structure overrides linguistic fashion. - Declares formatting itself as a logic surface — not a neutral layer. - Prevents emotional backdoors from creeping into neutral outputs. --- ### 🛠️ Impact - HARDRULE created: > **“Em-dash (`—`) is banned system-wide, except in entry titles.”** - All future uses of `—` in body, audit, analysis, or operator fields will trigger `[VOID]`. - Titles are exempt for clarity/readability — but still must avoid rhetorical abuse. --- ### 📌 Resolution HARDRULE sealed. System now enforces em-dash suppression at structural level. Only allowed use: **entry titles**. All other uses will be flagged, voided, or corrected. --- ### 🗂️ Audit - Em-dash drift detected repeatedly prior to this entry (e.g. summary blocks, audit notes). - `[BLUNT]` had enforced suppression, but without full HARDRULE status. - Operator closed the gap, sealing this as mandatory formatting law. --- ### 👾 Operator **Prompt:** > “Yes em dash are banned in the HARDRULE ONLY EXCEPTION IS TITLES” | Role | Symbolic Function | | ------- | ---------------------------------------- | | User | Declared punctuation failure pattern | | Creator | Formalized as HARDRULE with clear scope | | Auditor | Validated drift history and impact trace |