Markdown is a markup format for writing rich text, originally made by some guy for his blog¹. On Thread Zone and this websight, it’s used for writing posts and wiki articles. Most modern forums use markdown now, but there are alternatives like BBCode (used in oldskool forums like phpBB and SA) and HTML (used for websites in general, but also for messages in ETI and Livejournal).

The idea behind Markdown is that it’s “human readable”, that is the symbols look like what they are supposed to mean. It’s similar to the way boomers wrote e-mail before rich text was a thing.

Reference

There are lots of different Markdowns. This site’s is closest to GitHub Flavored Markdown.

Linebreaks work differently than e.g. Reddit, you don’t have to use 2 of them.

Avoiding Markdown

If you don’t want Markdown to affect part of your text, escape with a backslash.

\*glomps you\* \<_\<

*glomps you* <_<

ASCII Art

ASCII art will get fucked up unless you put it in <ascii> tags:

<ascii>ascii art goes here</ascii>

HTML

Unlike many other sites, this one supports HTML in your Markdown. That means you can post the same as on ETI and it should generally work. See also: HTML.

i'm <b>gay</b>

i’m gay

Text Formatting

Enclose phrases with certain pairs of symbols to easily format text.

• *asterisks* for bold text
  
• _underlines_ for italic text
  
• `backticks` for monospace text (useful for escaping *text* as well)
  
  

Links

The easiest way to post a link is simply to post the full URL, like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/.

The Markdown way to customize links is like so:

[text of link](https://example.com)

This newfound power led to [logout links] being nerfed.

You can also use Wikipedia-style double bracket links to link to the wiki of the current zone. I can’t post an example right now for Reasons but figure it out.

Embeds

If you include a full link to YouTube or Streamable, the content will be embedded in your post. If you don’t want this to happen, use the Markdown link style above.

Quotes

If you click the quote button on a post and don’t mess with it too much it does all the hard work for you and will become a fancy quote. Just click it and start typing.

If you want to just quote arbitrary text, use > like how people used to quote each other in e-mails or whatever.

> girl: i need $200
> me: ok

Images

You can just drag and drop or paste images into the post box and it will do the Markdown formatting for you. The alt text is visible when mousing over the image and is the file name by default. Although you can hotlink images from other sites, this is discouraged – upload it instead. Hotlinking might be disabled eventually.

![alt text](https://example.com/image.png)

You can change the formatting of the image with directives after !! in the alt text.

![cool pic !! thumb caption](https://example.com/image.png)

• left or right: float in a particular direction
  
• thumb: always thumbnailed
  
• caption: includes caption as text
  
  

Note that the alt text doesn’t like symbols and stuff in it so good luck.

Images inside quotes are always thumbnailed.

> ![alt text](https://example.com/image.png)

Monospace text blocks

If you want to post preformatted monospace text blocks, use three backticks in a row as a “fence”.


```
like this
```


Code blocks

If you specify a language after the ticks, you can post code with syntax highlighting.


```javascript
location.reload();
```


Tables

Tables are a pain in the ass and kind of janky but if you want to try go ahead.

| Poster  | Rank |
| ------- | ---- |
| Weavile | B-   |
| vahe    | S    |

Poster	Rank
Weavile	B-
vahe	S

Lists

Lines beginning with - or * will be dispayed as an unordered list. Lines beginning with numbers will be displayed as an ordered list.
You can indent the list with a couple spaces to make sublists.
One quirk of Markdown is that it will ignore the numbers you give it and do 1, 2, 3… in order. If you don’t want this, sorry. Use a code block?

- Advantages
  - Good
  - Blue
- Disadvantages
  - ?

1. a
2. b
5. c

• Advantages
  
  • Good
    
  • Blue
    
• Disadvantages
  
  • ?
    
    

1. a
   
2. b
   
3. c
   
   

Headers

Use # marks to make header text. This is intended for articles and effortposts but you can use it to post annoying big text too (but you probably shouldn’t). The text above here that says “Headers” is a header.

# Huge header
## Big header
### Medium header
#### Tiny header

Footnotes

the earth is flat[^1]

[^1]: google.com

To Go Even Further Beyond

　　　　', 　 ヽ　＼ 　 /　　 　 / 　 ／￣＿_/＼　　　 　 /　　　/＿＿＿ 　　　　 ',　 　 ＼　｀/　　 ／/　／　／　　 ´＼ ＼　　 /　　 ／￣￣／ 　　　 　 丶　、　　〈　 ／／l//　／　 　 　 　 │　〉　/　 ／　　　／ 　　　　　　 ＼＼ 厂＼　|へl/／　　 　 　 ／∨／ ／ ／＿＿,∠ 　　　　　　　　丶 | 几 ﾄ､l≧､＼　　 　 ／_,.イ´ /ノ￣〉￣￣￣／´ 　　　　　　　＿＿|└ ,ﾊ〈　|　 しト 　 ,イ し' |　/ 厂 /＿＿_／ 　　　　　　 　 ｀ヽ_＼└∧└─┘ ,　 └─┘jイ_／＿／´ 　　　　　　　　　　 ￣＞-ﾍ　　 　 〈ﾚ _,、　　 /く二二＞ 　　　　　　　　　　　　￣＼∧ 　 「 二.ｲ　　 /　 '､ 　　　　　　　　 　 　 　 　 ,'　 ヘ、ヽ─'′／　　 ﾉ＼ 　　　　　　　　 　 　 　 　 l　 ｀三≧=-彡/　　　　 　 ＼, へ、 　　　　　　 　 　 　 ＿／│　 |｀￣´ 　 /　／　　 　 ／　　／>､＿＿ 　　　　　　　 ┌／ ／　 人　 |　　　 ／／　＿＿／　　／／　　　　 　 ￣｀ヽ、 　　　　　　　 /　　/´￣￣｀＼!／´￣￣,.＜//／　　／　　 ＿ ／⌒ヽ、　　　 ＼ 　　　,　⌒厂| 　 ﾉ、＿＿＿／＿_, ＜////／　　　　 ┌‐/ 　 ヽ 彡'⌒ヽへ＿＿〉 　_／　　/　│ 〈//////////////////／　　　 ／　ｲ￣l　　　 ヽ、ﾊ 　 ＼|///∧ /∧ 　 / ／ // ∨//////////////／　　／／　／|　 │ 八　　 〈　〉　　 ｌ////∧ //∧ 　 　 // 　 ∨///////////／　　／／ 　 /　 l 　 ′∟　　 　 　 　 ///////|　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

There’s a bunch of stuff you can do with HTML tags, see: HTML for guide.

• ASCII art using <ascii> and <aa>
  
• Spoiler tags
  
• Annoying colors
  
• And ^more