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"it's a pretty strong assumption to think non technical users will use some sort of markup language"

Yeah!

Well, except all those who use some variety of bulletin board/forum with the random markup they entail.

Probably not more than a couple hundred million of those people though.

One thing is having markup in a place where usually you don't write more than a few lines, another is having it in a big document.

One thing is having it a free forum, another is having it in a product you pay for. One thing is having to use it, another is to actually like it.

And, as far as my experience goes, most of the posts in forums and the like are plain text. Not to mention that a lot of these forums are targeted at already somewhat technical people.

EDIT: And, on a personal note, markup even annoys me, even if I'm a developer.

I think I made a mistake in my statement: it's not some random markup like textile or markdown, but the idea is more akin to a LaTeX-y interface, a WYSIWYM web-based editor. You have a good point, however, 'cause, coming to think of it, I wouldn't be targeting very non-tech people after all and they might very well expect stuff that's already done in git.

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