It may sound odd, but I agree both with @Jezmund_Berserker’s post (laughing about the claim that everybody is using it and that it took over the world) and with @karlnyhus’s post (just don’t use Markdown if you don’t like it, maybe you are not the audience for Markdown) at the same time.
To me, Markdown has come a long way. It is widely available in a lot of tools. Its ubiquity is impressive. It is being embraced more and more by a lot of tools, apps, and services. And yes, I use it a lot.
At the same time, I do not know anybody in my family, among my (offline) friends, or among colleagues that is using it. At the same time from those guys: “How did you make this word bold in your WhatsApp message?” (https://faq.whatsapp.com/539178204879377) Yeah, those are the things they care about… Technically: some rudimentary Markdown flavors.
In my opinion, Markdown is far from perfect, but it is widely available, and I like to have it. I like that there are many Markdown “flavors” (forks or whatever). I am using it. And no, it is not the solution for every problem. And no, it for sure did not take over the world (at least not my part of the world over here). But it for sure is a nice headline to get the blood boiling in our community.
There is no need to do so.
Let us laugh about Markdown, use it if you like it, or ignore it if you don’t or if you don’t need it. And props to Anil Dash, it for sure is an article that is being read.
I love Markdown. Typora is my favorite Markdown editor for the Mac. It’s totally worth the $15 buy-once price. So clean and simple. It’s WYSIWYG until you toggle cmd-/ , then you can see the codes. That’s all you need to know to use it.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t have an iOS/iPad OS version. I use OneMarkdown for Markdown reading and editing on my phone and iPad ($10).
I had the same reaction when I saw the title: way, way, overstated. My guess is that only us geeky nerds have even heard about Markdown, let alone use it. And I probably wouldn’t use it if I didn’t do so much writing on the web. It’s ugly.
I use, and like, Markdown because it’s a LML (lightweight markup language) that’s widely used. I enjoy the portability and way I (pretty much) know what I’ll get when I go from one place to another.
However, I also agree with the article linked above saying that MD isn’t a great LML, and that people rallying around another one would’ve been better. Heck, as a Norwegian, I need to use modifiers to get any of the symbols used for MD. (Like * and _. I assume this isn’t the case in the US?)
It’s a bit like how it’s great that we’ve agreed on the decimal system for numbers (base 10), even though the dozenal system (base 12) would’ve been better.
That is really interesting. I am in a situation where there is almost no-one who doesn’t use Whatsapp - from individual to schools, to clubs, newspapers. I would suggest it is ubiquitous here (UK). I dont even like it that much
My friends all over Europe all depend on What’s App, only using the Chat tab, to check in with friends & family, or arrange a get together with a friend or group of friends. Its use is multi-generational, from teens to people in their seventies & eighties
It seems to me like What’s App in Europe has replaced the function of the old land-line telephone, completely skipping over the use of a smart phone to make calls.
Facebook Messenger… that’s just sad. But then again, that seems to be what people here in the US who are not using Messages try use to get in touch with me (and utterly fail as I never check FB).
And yes, all of my European friends and family use WhatsApp. Why it became so popular it’s beyond me. Reminds me of old AOL.
Instant messaging today is where email was in the early 90’s when the company, where I worked, had engineers traveling to East, and Southeast, Asia. This was the days of dial up Compuserve, MCI mail, and other siloed systems that didn’t talk to each other.
Once we got a monthly bill for several hundred dollars because one country started taxing messages per byte. I did some research and recommended our people dial Australia long distance to connect to their provider. It was much less expensive.
It makes no sense that IM is still proprietary.
AFAIK we may get encrypted RCS in iMessage with iOS 26.3.
I feel very like you, if it wasn’t for the network effect, I wouldn’t use WhatsApp, but it has become ubiquitous, to the point where an organisation I hadn’t authorised used it to message me to confirm an order.
But it does have massive advantages for phone calls. I’ve had work colleagues based in the US and Australia phone me without having to think about international charges.
It’s getting to the point where aside form Family and close friends, I don’t save people’s phone numbers as IP audio or video calls don’t require them.
==Speaker notes== (e.g., change slide, pause, read from book).
(Can’t highlight on this forum, but can use other basic markdown commands)
For the speaker, colour can be helpful which can be included in the stylesheet for the speaker script. The colour (or even emphasis) doesn’t need to be included in any printed transcriptions.
