Markdown has its own magic incantations that can infuriate if you don't get them just right. GP is right: most people can't handle markup languages, period. Or,

Markdown has its own magic incantations that can infuriate if you don't get them just right. GP is right: most people can't handle markup languages, period. Or, they can, but vastly prefer WYSIWYG text formatting. For me, if I'm writing something for a web page, I use HTML in a decent editor (emacs). Markdown, reST, or anything else is not easier, just different. If I need a really nice-looking document, I'll probably use LaTeX. But for a simple document or one that I'll work on with other people, I'll normally just use google docs.