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  • It would be interesting to survey maybe the top 1% (in terms of views) posts and find out how many actually would have a problem with the three changes mentioned. My guess is that the impact would still be very small, and while the corrective actions would be nice, they probably aren't necessary. Editors will understand the markdown diff won't look right past a certain date, and regular users won't care - they aren't editing. A simple check: if editing and the last edit is older than the markdown change date then render both old and new. If different results, then post note
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Jun 12, 2015 at 13:23
  • Where note would be, "In the transition to CommonMark, this post may require formatting updates. During your edit, please review the entire post for formatting issues." - I don't think you'll necessarily need to keep both around, render both for every post or edit when reviewing, etc. Sure, it would be nice, but it sounds like a lot of effort. See what the impact is - if it's not terribly large, make the switch, add note where there's a difference, and let the users complain if it does, in fact, make a bigger difference than thought - at that point you can implement actual needs.
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Jun 12, 2015 at 13:26
  • Oh, and you don't have to keep the old renderer around - just run the new renderer on the old markdown and compare to the stored HTML.
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Jun 12, 2015 at 13:27
  • It's not the old posts but old posters' habits that have to be changed. The ATX headers change (space after #) was the first behavioral barrier for me when I started using CommonMark-based renderers. A bit of unlearning is in order, I'm afraid.
    – Deer Hunter
    Commented Jun 12, 2015 at 16:47
  • 5
    Oh, and CommonMark tables would be awesome. :)
    – Deer Hunter
    Commented Jun 12, 2015 at 16:48
  • @AdamDavis that requires keeping the old rendered for all posts (over a few million) currently rendered, it's cheaper storage wise to just keep the old renderer around.
    – ratchet freak
    Commented Jun 12, 2015 at 17:08
  • 1
    @ratchetfreak No it doesn't. Once it's edited, then you no longer need to display the note.
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Jun 12, 2015 at 17:15
  • 2
    @DeerHunter FYI, I'm quoting you here.
    – balpha StaffMod
    Commented Jun 15, 2015 at 13:54
  • 2
    @balpha Is this still being explored?
    – Stijn
    Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 22:30
  • 1
    @balpha I too want to know what's going on with this. Markdown support was asked about 2 years ago, has 85 upvotes and has zero response from SE team that I can find. SE should put up a blog post about this.
    – jcollum
    Commented Dec 4, 2016 at 19:45
  • @balpha: So, where exactly is SE on this? Is the problem in CommonMark being standardized or is the problem with implementing it?
    – Nicol Bolas
    Commented Jun 9, 2017 at 16:41
  • 3
    @NicolBolas we investigated the feasibility of doing the work in May, and concluded that it's doable. Right now it's in the hands of our Q&A platform team to prioritize and schedule. We want to do it, but we expect some delays due to finite resources and pressing goals, not to mention complicated implementation (do we rebake all posts or use a flag or date to determine which editor? Is that confusing for users? etc.). In short we're hoping for this year, but I can't make any promises yet.
    – Haney
    Commented Jun 9, 2017 at 16:46
  • Do ordered lists still rewrite the numbers? So if you try to make a list of items 4, 5, 8, 9, it rewrites it to 1, 2, 3, 4?
    – endolith
    Commented Jun 6, 2020 at 15:16