Formatting on the Forums

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Well, I accessed the forums with another Firefox of mine (4.0), and once it seemed I couldn't see a "throughline" made by <hr>.
Let me try it out:

---

⇧That was Markdown, dashes.

---

⇧That was Markdown, underscores.

<hr>

⇧That was <hr>.

Well, it seems to work, only that I included that "<hr>" within another HTML element, so that's possibly why.
(For Ruario: yes, I tried to "make <abbr>" out of <hr>)

[ruario]

ruario last edited by

Why do you always start you --- lines with >, so that they become quoted? You really don't need to do that.

Are you just trying to indent the <hr>? What is this, the early 90's where we use random tags to try and enforce styling?

You realise that will likely look very broken if we change the CSS on these forums again?

I'd use tags for what they intended, rather than trying to hack a style that happens to work right now but could look weird in the future.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

..., so that they become quoted? You really don't need to do that.

Always?
<abbr title="Where ALWAYS?">Where?</abbr>

---

You realise that will likely look very broken if we change the CSS on these forums again?

I don't mind you either changing it or not - the thread is about the current formatting now and will always be about the (then) current formatting.
And I doubt you can (will) change it so that proper HTML might stop working*:P*

---

I'd use tags for what they intended, rather than trying to hack a style that happens to work right now but could look weird in the future.

1. I don't mind that - about some future.
2. I doubt if there'll be much changes: HTML5 is fairly new now; it's rather more possible (or might happen sooner) that these forums' rendering will change...[Oops! Embedding images here stopped working both ways! Both "![](link)" and "![](link)"]

[ruario]

ruario last edited by

Always? Where?

Ok, often then

And I doubt you can (will) change it so that proper HTML might stop working

No but quotes might get styled differently. So it will likely always remain readable but could look odd.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

[Oops! Embedding images here stopped working both ways! Both "![](link)" and ...]

O'k, I'm gonna test that - in another thread (another board) a smilie from that same source behaved quite alright!

WORKS!
Why didn't it THEN!??

[ruario]

ruario last edited by

I edited you post for quick check and it worked for me—I have subsequently removed my test edit.

P.S. I see that your smilie's are once again quoted for unknown reasons.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by admin

I see that your smilie's are once again quoted for unknown reasons.
>

Look, I don't know why you DON'T KNOW the [obvious] reason. I suggest you try, and this'll be your homework.
(If it's happening because you hold the quoting functionality ONLY literally, then simply try to forget it.)

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

(If it's happening because you hold the quoting functionality ONLY literally, then simply try to forget it.)

<p title="I realised that it may directly pertain to formatting - and it DOES.">A hint: there are quotation marks - what else are they used when not quoting anyone? Same here.

[ruario]

ruario last edited by

and this'll be your homework

Umm, OK.

You know what? Instead, I think I'll just skip responding to this thread or to you. Have fun with the formatting, I'm out.

[Deleted User]

Deleted User last edited by

A wise choice, ruario. I've pretty much given up responding in other threads as well but for different reasons.

[ruario]

ruario last edited by

…lists with paragraphs are broken.

Actually it seems you can do lists with paragraphs using two spaces at the end of the line to force a line break within the list, for example, this:

* **Pets:**  
  dogs  
  cats  
  hamsters
* **Wild animals:**  
  lions  
  tigers  
  bears

(Note: I have 2 spaces after "**Pets:**", "dogs", "cats", "**Wild animals:**", "lions" and "tigers").

That will display as:

• Pets:
  dogs
  cats
  hamsters
• Wild animals:
  lions
  tigers
  bears

I don't think you should have to do this if you follow the Markdown syntax page literally but it seems to be required with our implementation and at least provides a work around.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Well, let me check it out:

• Pets:
  dogs
  cats
  hamsters

• Wild animals:
  lions
  tigers
  bears

---

Yup. (By the way, after a "---" line you don't need a spare line to get a <hr> output.)
Now let me try another way:

• Pets:
  dogs
  cats
  hamsters

• Wild animals:
  lions
  tigers
  bears

Four spaces ("sub"lines) within a list don't seem to make any difference to the output.

[ruario]

ruario last edited by admin

By the way, after a "---" line you don't need a spare line to get a <hr> output.

You might not need to (right now) but you should. Doing so is according to spec and should therefore prevent future problems if we update or change our Markdown parser. I even suggested this in Formatting with Markdown under "Quick summary" → "Avoiding common problems".

• Add a blank line before and after paragraphs, lists, quotes or blocks of preformatted text.

In fact, putting extra lines before and after major elements sections (lists, quotes, blocks of pre-formatted text, line rules, etc.) is always a good idea. You can even put multiple if you like, they will not show as extras. It is better to be liberal with blank lines, unless you are working with lists.

[ruario]

ruario last edited by

Four spaces ("sub"lines) within a list don't seem to make any difference to the output.

This is entirely as expected since Markdown and (HTML for that matter) cuts all whitespace (spaces, tabs and line breaks) down to a single space, unless marked up otherwise.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

In fact, putting extra lines before and after major elements sections (lists, quotes, blocks of pre-formatted text, line rules, etc.) is always a good idea.

You know what?
In most cases it might even look tidier - so you're generally right...

You can even put multiple if you like, they will not show as extras.

If I don't want to use line rules ("<hr>" or alike) but do want to show some (logical) separation within my posting, I insert between a double-break before and another one after*:idea:*

[ruario]

ruario last edited by

@joshl Just wanted to quickly say thanks for this thread! You and I have not always seen eye to eye but this thread did prompt me to try and get things improved, so a big thanks for that! :cheers:

Ok, emphasis works now and we have changed the help page to have [basic Markdown] instructions…

We also link them from the note below the comments input field. Hope that helps everyone.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Ok, emphasis works now and...

Well, does it?
And what about this?

Well, both ways - the italics thing works.
(Ruario, you don't need to "@poop" me that way: in any case I prefer the standard punctuation - like "Ruario, you don't need to...":cheers:)

[ruario]

ruario last edited by

Well, both ways - the italics thing works.

Yes the HTML tags that worked before all still work. In addition <em> now works as well. However, using the Markdown methods is quicker and easier, IMHO.

you don't need to "@poop" me that way

Ah yes, you did specifically ask me not to do that in this thread. Sorry!

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

I usually call people this way:

@birdblack:
Hey, Birdblack, what do you think.. *_blah-blah-blah_* ...

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Testing if the <dfn> element works here:

<p>The <dfn title="World Health Organization">WHO</dfn> was founded in 1948.
:rolleyes:
Yeah, it does! :yes: