markdown is a fuzzy, fragmented, primitive light-markup.
but +1000 on the generalized suggestion for light-markup.
and instead of all the inane complexities of html-plus-css, use a model to give a good default display of the content, but let the user reformulate the display quickly and easily. (the "zoom" nonsense is the wrong way to go about things.)
to sum up: it should be easy to put something on the web, and easy for people to format viewing to their preference.
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create collaborative-filtering to separate wheat from chaff.
it's more than slightly embarrassing that it's now 2014, and we _still_ haven't done this obviously needed task.
once we saw we could store-and-forward everything freely, it was immediately clear the haystack will grow infinitely, and thus there is a huge need to be able to isolate needles.
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people have always saved and treasured family photographs... we need to facilitate that human need, and save our history.
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build in an objective search engine and sharing modalities, so that hundreds of billions of dollars -- literally! -- aren't siphoned out of our pockets to google and facebook.
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put advertisers in their place -- i.e., the yellow pages. keep their ugly noisy pollution out of our public spaces.
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make those "public spaces" a collection of _private_ spaces, so i'll retain ownership of, and control over, _my_ content.
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build in the necessary mechanisms for intelligent discourse, and reasoned public action, to deal with vital issues in the social, political, economic, cultural, and ecology arenas.
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automate hum-drum work to the greatest degree possible.
elevate societal appreciation for those doing hum-drum work we are unable to automate. garbage-collectors are heroes, just like fire-fighters; the internet can frame-and-praise.
encourage those who are so-inclined to become _artists_: painters, poets, programmers, musicians, writers, whatever. our _creativity_ is the only thing that can save us humans from our extinction, which will soon stare us in the face.
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strive to integrate the offline and online worlds, so we can eliminate hunger, poverty, and homelessness. _yes,_we_can._
the rich can stay rich, but nobody should be poverty-ridden.
(and if you say these issues are unrelated to the internet, you don't get it, and really should pay better attention.)
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while i'm at it, stop letting the rich boys use the miracle of the internet as another one of their weapons to wage war.
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comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.
(if the shoe fits, wear it, because this does mean you.)
-bowerbird