alt Hacker NewsHyphens here are meant to be formatting. You would be correct if this was a literary piece, but handbooks and sheets don't need to use these rules.
Replies
gib444 • yesterday at 6:39 AM
Spelling, grammar and punctuation matter everywhere, in my opinion.
I wouldn't have read your comment if it were all lowercase and used zero punctuation, for example.
It's a misuse because in this context the hyphen could be mis-construed as a negative amount, and this causes the reader to stop and carefully re-read the content to ensure that they're not misinterpreting it. That's not where you want to be spending your reader's attention.