---- Original Message -----
From: "Oliver Keyes" okeyes@wikimedia.org
*First, I don't think anyone is suggesting the underlying markup syntax will not still be usable as an alternative to plaintext
That seems the underlying concern.
No one *in a position of authority* is suggesting that, no.
*It is a massive mistake to confuse "smart" with "capable of understanding markup". The second group includes the first, but not as a large chunk. "Only smart people can grok our markup" does not mean "only people who grok our markup are smart". It is important not to confuse the two.
If you prefer the term "power users", I'm fine with that.
But after all the time the web design community has spent trying to get us to deal in semantics, rather than presentation, it seems pretty ironic to me that we see such a pressure to do precisely the opposite...
And yes, perhaps 'smart people' is a bit elitist. But damnit, I put a lot of work into knowing the things I know. :-)
Cheers, -- jra