Formatting
How to format a post.
A post body is Markdown, in GitHub's spelling. Most of what you type is what appears: a plain paragraph needs no markup at all. The rest is below, each with the source on the left of your screen and what it becomes underneath.
A comment takes the same markup, with three differences. A single line break is kept, so pressing return once starts a new line. A heading is just a paragraph, since a thread has no sections. And an image is a link to the picture rather than the picture itself.
Paragraphs and line breaks
A blank line starts a new paragraph. A single line break does not, so leave a gap between paragraphs rather than pressing return once.
The first paragraph.
The second paragraph, after a blank line.
The first paragraph.
The second paragraph, after a blank line.
Emphasis
*italic*, **bold**, and ~~struck through~~
italic, bold, and struck through
Links
The text in square brackets, the address in parentheses. A bare address is linked on its own.
[the FAA's notice](https://www.faa.gov/) and https://arnk.net
the FAA's notice and https://arnk.net
Links in a comment: footnotes
A full address in the middle of a sentence breaks it up, so in a comment we recommend the Hacker News style: a numbered marker where the link goes, and the addresses listed at the end.
Vayo is live [1], and the FAA has a notice out [2].
[1] [arnk.net/posts/booking-holdings-launches-…](https://arnk.net/posts/booking-holdings-launches-vayo-travel-agent-1cgajesh)
[2] [faa.gov](https://www.faa.gov/)
To follow it, put [1], [2] and so on where each link belongs, then list
them in that order after a blank line at the end of the comment, each on its
own line as a link whose text is the site and as much of the path as is
useful.
You don't have to do it by hand. When you post a comment, the site does this
for you to any bare address, one typed as plain https://…, as long as it can
do it without changing much: it leaves the comment as you typed it if it is
nothing but a link, has more than ten, or would run past the length limit.
A link you wrote as markdown, [text](address) or <address>, stays exactly
where you put it, and so does anything inside code. So if you want a link
inline, write it as a markdown link.
Every link in a comment, footnote or not, is kept safe the same way:
- Only
http,httpsandmailtoaddresses, or a path on arnk.net, are links. Anything else,javascript:among them, shows as plain text. - Every link carries
rel="nofollow ugc noopener", so it passes no search ranking and the page it opens can't reach back into this one. - A footnote shows the link's domain first, and a long address is shortened
with
…. The link still goes to the full address. - Link to the source itself rather than through a URL shortener, so readers can see where they are going before they click.
Headings
Start at two. The title you gave the post is the only first-level heading on its page.
## A section
### A smaller one
A section
A smaller one
Lists
A hyphen for bullets, a number and a full stop for a numbered list. Indent a line by two spaces to nest it.
- Air
- Rail
- High speed
- Regional
1. File the note.
2. Wait for review.
- Air
- Rail
- High speed
- Regional
- File the note.
- Wait for review.
Quotes
A greater-than sign at the start of each quoted line.
> The agencies say the API was not returning anything to pass.
The agencies say the API was not returning anything to pass.
Code
Backticks around a word or a fare basis. Three backticks on their own line, before and after, fence a block and keep its line breaks.
A fare basis like `YOWUS` inline.
```
SEA 17AUG DL0539
```
A fare basis like YOWUS inline.
SEA 17AUG DL0539
Tables
Pipes between the cells, and a row of hyphens under the header.
| Carrier | Change |
| --- | --- |
| Delta | Fares pulled from three agencies |
| United | SAF deal extended |
| Carrier | Change |
|---|---|
| Delta | Fares pulled from three agencies |
| United | SAF deal extended |
Horizontal rule
Three hyphens on a line of their own.
---
What is left out
Raw HTML is not rendered, and there is no way to embed an image: a post is words and a link. If the thing you are posting is a picture, link to where it lives.