Markdown is a formalization of formatting conventions that people were using well before it was invented as a separate product. It was slightly different - the

Markdown is a formalization of formatting conventions that people were using well before it was invented as a separate product. It was slightly different - the link syntax was novel, and asterisks usually meant bold instead of italics - but it was close enough that the allure of 'your reflexes still work' held. Nothing else is as popular as Markdown because it isn't actually Markdown that's popular, it's what preceded it. Personally I'm happy for it because it'll finally stop programming languages from inventing their own domain-specific oddly-syntaxed subset of HTML; the way Rust uses it is something others have no reason not to copy. For your own technical writing, AsciiDoc works pretty well.