It makes me grumbly that Markdown syntax won over Textile. It seems a closer equivalent is whatever parser they're using for emacs Org Mode.
*This* should be bold and /this/should be italics. This is a hill I'm willing to be severely injured on.
@octothorpe Well, better start tumbling down that rocky slope, because I'm certain that change will not be made. :-)
@octothorpe if it makes you feel better Slack has their own markup that’s a mutant hybrid of Textile and Markdown