Indeed. So these guys have learned SGML, HTML1, 2, 3 and 4, and probably type it by hand for a living, but learning the Wiki mark-up, wow, that is asking just too much. :-)
I do actually agree with a lot of what Steve says, but not entirely with the conclusions. There are so many flavours of wiki, and the fusspot within me itches to see it standardized. Yet it also allows each individual wiki to have its own feel -- more reasons below.... The quirkiness is also seen generally as a strength, not a hindrance. Simplicity is debateable. I find it easier to hit ' repeatedly (I'm a pianist...) that to fiddle with < and / -- one needs SHIFT and the other doesn't. For me, that's a guaranteed typo every time. At least with wiki I don't need to worry about what works on IE6 / Netscape 4.x / Opera / Mozilla ... and then MacIE, *nix browsers etc -- except of course on my own wiki where I decide what HTML tags the wiki tags are parsed to. I'm actually a lurker on the W3C CSS list, and it's very depressing to see all the great ideas for CSS3 that come up, yet all the while I can't even get CSS2 to work reliably. pot, kettle, black & so on ... ;-)
Anyway, before this wiki markup vs. HTML debate clogs the list, may I suggest that, as far as generalities of the topic go, we <gruff northern voice>take it outside</> to Meatball: http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?WikiSyntax , http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?RawHtmlWiki and (you're so not gonna like this one...) http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?HtmlIsAssembler