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I think a possibility of highlighting sections of the text, equations, or code in the posts by the community members might add to the quick-readability of the questions and answers. I mean a mechanism similar to what is currently possible in Medium:

enter image description here

More succinctly, community members would read a post and highlight some parts. Such highlightings will be visible to any viewer of the post. A highlight has an owner (its creator), and can be removed by its owner or the moderators. Moderating highlights will not be a burdensome task, since highlighting does not entail a modification of contents (as for editing), and no mistake or offence is possible -- only there could be inept highlighting by some user.

This could be a feature that can be turned on and off by a viewer. Generally, it would help a viewer to get an idea of the major points of a post (question or answer) from the highlighted sections provided by the community members.

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  • related: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/79947/…
    – rene Mod
    Commented Feb 2, 2018 at 11:02
  • Seem bringing complexity for something, bringing emphasis, already possible with an edit (which is regulated and moderated). I don't feel the added complexity would worth the benefit if there's some.
    – Tensibai
    Commented Feb 2, 2018 at 11:03

1 Answer 1

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Markdown already provides a form of highlighting quoting using <blockquote>:

enter image description here

This is not inline, but it functions pretty well for its use.

If you want to add some emphasis to your text, then look at this:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer tincidunt malesuada felis ut finibus. Mauris nisi dui, interdum ut nisi dignissim, venenatis ullamcorper metus. Suspendisse finibus dui ex, in lacinia dolor vulputate ac. Morbi mollis lorem ipsum, a convallis ipsum rutrum vitae. Pellentesque tempus malesuada facilisis. Cras consectetur vel lacus in dictum. Sed imperdiet vehicula velit nec suscipit. Aliquam vitae interdum ante. Sed ipsum tellus, mattis in est non, tempor pulvinar sem.

Sometimes you have to be creative in order to provide the formatting that you're after. Markdown provides some basic formatting for setting content, all of which are sufficient. Highlighting can be done using the above quoting mechanism, or using bold/italics:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer tincidunt malesuada felis ut finibus.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer tincidunt malesuada felis ut finibus.

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  • 1
    What's the last paragraph for? What language is that?
    – aBochur
    Commented Feb 1, 2018 at 16:52
  • 2
    @Abochur: It's Lorem ipsum.
    – Werner
    Commented Feb 1, 2018 at 16:53
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    I think my suggestion is misunderstood. I mean, e.g., that I (or anybody other than you) would be able to highlight some part of your post.
    – AlQuemist
    Commented Feb 1, 2018 at 18:43
  • @AlQuemist: So community members would read your post and highlight something. And that something would be visibly highlighted to others viewing your post? And if they want to, other could highlight more content, or remove highlights as they see fit?
    – Werner
    Commented Feb 1, 2018 at 18:57
  • precisely. but, e.g., I cannot remove the highlights made by another person. I can just view them. However, a moderator could remove any highlight.
    – AlQuemist
    Commented Feb 1, 2018 at 19:01
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    @AlQuemist: This sounds similar to an edit (new users can suggest edits that is reviewed by the community), while "trusted" users can edit as needed or roll back edits. I don't know how your suggestion would benefit the community in the way (suggested) edits already do. Sure, it's a different mechanism, but it's similar in what it provides/achieves. Moreover, if any community member can just draft up their highlighting, this may put an unnecessary burden on moderators to vet/clean up stuff.
    – Werner
    Commented Feb 1, 2018 at 19:15
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    I don't see the similarity with the edit mechanism. My proposal is fundamentally different, afais.
    – AlQuemist
    Commented Feb 1, 2018 at 19:36
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    Its worth remembering that SE actually tries to use some standard flavour of markdown - so if its not in the markdown spec, its unlikely to get implemented.
    – Journeyman Geek
    Commented Feb 2, 2018 at 11:10

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