There was some buzz on this list a while back about supporting Usenet syntax - such as *bold*, /italics/ and _underscores_.
I have created an extension which provides this facility, which you can read about here:
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:UsenetSyntax
I welcome all feedback - and thanks in advance to anyone who wants to give it a shot.
-- Jim R. Wilson (jimbojw)