Formatting

Formatting a post is, for the most part, as simple as normal web conventions: don't SHOUT; use punctuation; add paragraph breaks.

Quotations

Generally, you should set off a quotation longer than a line with italics or some other obvious convention. Do not reply by quoting, except in limited fashion, because this adds to the reading workload for others, and can even be disorienting to navigate.

Signatures

Don't post a signature in your comment or post. It's extra work for you, and it makes you look like a weenie. Rely on your username like the rest of us.

HTML

More esoterically, the experienced MeFite? can enhance a post or comment with fancy HTML. Due to abuse, certain HTML tags are disallowed.

Disallowed Tags

• <big> : Makes text bigger.
• <font> : permits confusing use of other fonts, big text, and generally tends toward abuse
• <img> : See ImageLinks.

These tags will be edited out by the text parser.

Known Allowed Tags

• <b> : bold
• <i> : italics
• <a href> : especially with LinkTitles, which generate pop-up tags
• <small> : allows under-emphasis of some text, for asides and interpolations
• <blockquote> : did not work with older CSS, now works inside posts and comments; not recommended unless you must quote large blocks of text
• <strike> : Strike though
• <sup> : Superscript
• <sub> : Subscript
• <abbr> : Abbreviation

In truth, most of HTML 4 is permitted, simply because the text parser does not edit it out during preview.

False Tags

e.g. <homer>Doh!</homer>

Some will work, but others may be parsed out, and a danger is that the parser will leave broken HTML in its wake. Preview such comments carefully.

To be absolutely sure not to confuse the parser, it's a good idea to use the HTML character entities for the open and close brackets. &lt; for < and &gt; for >. See below for more about extended characters.

Extended characters

Created using HTML conventions such as & for the ampersand. Can be very tricky to navigate character sets, and you can't be sure the reader has the right one in use. Hearts (♥ = &hearts;), moons, stars, and blue whales may be fun, but don't expect it to work.

UBB tags

The bracket-enclosed style of tag, e.g. [b] for bold, is special to UBB and compatible bulletin board software. MetaFilter does not support these.