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> I agree they should rename, and after they rename, no one will give a crap about Markdown anymore.

I doubt that. RSS is still widely used even though Atom has the more precise specification.

> Call it Sparkdown or Harkdown or something so the connection is still apparent and move on.

FWIW, Gruber has explicitly endorsed this approach: https://twitter.com/gruber/status/507590561172176897

I'm not sure RSS vs. Atom is a good comparison. As far I understood it, Atom was created to address the limitations in RSS with a fresh approach, not simply to further refine behavior in a loosely specified format.

And while I'm aware he wants them to do their thing with a new name (an argument I can agree with for sure), I think he'd probably still complain about a connective name (e.g., Sparkdown). I don't know for sure, but given his posture to this whole thing throughout the process, it seems likely. At that point, though, I think they could justifiably just give him the proverbial finger. :)

EDIT: Turns out I was wrong. He gave them a list of similar names (with Markdown in them no less!) in a recent e-mail.

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