Erik wrote:
All I see is a row of buttons and a line under it that says "Click a button to see an example for this formatting" - that seems fairly obvious to me.
Of course it does. You wrote it.
Let's judge this feature based on more feedback than just yours.
I'm *not* the only one who had a similar complaint.
I think your arguments smack of techno-elitism, "I learned wiki markup the hard way, so everyone else has to as well!"
No - my arguments are from the perspective of a person who is using the feature for the first time. Hardly techno-elitism.
A developer who engages in a CVS commit war in opposition to the consensus of the other developers due to the fact that he wants to push through a largely untested feature is techno-elitism.
A developer who does not listen to users is techno-elitism.
A developer who thinks that his feature is fine, but it is the users who are are wrong is techno-elitism.
I would have loved to have even such a simple help toolbar when I started using Wikipedia. Yes, wiki markup is simple, but it's good to have learning aids.
Not when that aid looks like something else and causes confusion.
-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)