I guess the only downside is that if your client has NoScript, they just see the raw Markdown. With HTML if the client has a text based browser things like links, images, etc will still work. I still use Lynx over SSH if I need to grab paywalled content from my work machine or check something on the local intranet when I'm out of the office.
The text based browser is splitting hairs, but NoScript isn't. Unless there are browsers that will natively render Markdown if served/detected (i.e. not a plugin)?
You could see that as an upside - Markdown is designed to be human-readable and is pretty successful in that design goal. So a NoScript user will see a rather nice plaintext.
uhhh, Markdown is "nicely" formatted for geeks, and is great for easing the burden of content creation.
however My mom (and I imagine any non-geek) would have trouble reading the hyperlink format, and be completely confused by the strong vs italics, code, or block quote sections of Markdown.
Only geeks really use NoScript. Or people who know geeks that put NoScript on their computer. NoScript breaks many non-geek websites as it is, and they have to have geek skill to fix those breakages.
The text based browser is splitting hairs, but NoScript isn't. Unless there are browsers that will natively render Markdown if served/detected (i.e. not a plugin)?