a case for native bounding asterisk support

[Christian Perry]

Hello! I've joined the list in the spirit of furthering discussion and
making improvements to Markdown.

The following case is one that comes out of tremendous angst that I've
experienced as a digital native who grew up online in seeing the steady
erosion of native support for the *bounding asterisk* convention as a
result of widespread markdown adoption.

I recently posted a thread to Github
<https://github.com/adam-p/markdown-here/issues/621>to make my case and
will repost it here (hope you don't mind):

I propose the introduction of native markdown support for *bounding
asterisks*, with the goal of restoring a convention of internet
communication and culture.

I believe that John Gruber's interpretation of bounding asterisks was
well-intentioned, but largely incorrect. From a UPenn article:

By "emphasis" Gruber explains that he means "informing the reader of a
shift in style or voice," likening the use of bounding asterisks to "how
foreign words are italicized in many publications and books." He figured it
was an "Internet-ism," tracing its use to the need for a plain-text
substitution for italicization or bolding. (Source
<https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4466>)

"A plain-text substitution for italicization" is simply not why people use
bounding asterisks online. In internet culture (particularly in subcultures
of anime, gaming, and fandom), bounding asterisks are not used to
*emphasize*; they're used to *emote*.

The bounding convention, for those unfamiliar, places an asterisk-wrapped
phrase, written in third person, adjacent to speech, written in first
person. For instance:

*Walks into the dark room, unable to see a thing* Now where could I have
put my cheese?

*flicks on the light switch* Ah, there it is! Right where I left it on the
counter. *walks to the cheese and takes it, smiling with an accomplished,
satisfied grin*

Another use of bounding asterisks is to indicate an onomatopoeia (*nom nom
nom*) as referenced in the following scholarly article
<https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/downloads/neu:376918?datastream_id=content>.
To quote:

Expressions can also be recreated by naming the expression offset by
asterisks, for example ‘*grins*’. This technique can also be used to denote
onomatopoeias like ‘*gluckgluckgluck*’ recreating the sound of drinking
quickly (Hentschel, 1998).

There are instances in which, yes, bounding asterisks convey print-like
emphasis, but in my own experience this is a much less frequent use case
than emoting (though probably more frequent than exclaiming with an
onomatopoeia).

Nevertheless, because of the widespread adoption of markdown syntax, *it's
now impossible to write native asterisk-bound phrases on a number of
prominent communication platforms, including Discord, Slack, Reddit, and
Skype*.

I see this outcome as an unintended consequence of an original spec that
misread the intention of one of the internet's truly native communication
conventions (alongside emoticons and hashtag), a convention that ought to
be respected and restored.

I'm not alone in feeling passionate about this issue. There are threads to
a similar effect here
<https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/71hdvs/still_cant_figure_out_how_to_post_asterisks/>and
here
<https://www.reddit.com/r/discordapp/comments/4kkpus/can_you_please_stop_cutting_and/>
and here
<https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360043381512-Please-allow-users-to-turn-off-auto-formatting>.


In the words of one Discord user:

Why should we have to use a backslash just to make a text application
transmit the text we type? It's one thing to offer it as a workaround, but
to use that to dismiss what others want is rude.

To move the conversation forward, I propose an alternative markdown
italicized syntax: *bounding double exclamation marks*.

For example: Huzzah, we can !!finally!! use bounding asterisks again!
*celebrates with much rejoicing*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/markdown-discuss/attachments/20200603/58792ff1/attachment.html>