In reply to Alec.

Hi Alec, thanks for such a detailed reply, I always appreciate that kind of information, and for making it clear for an "armchair coder" like me: I can get by on the basic CSS, but the rest? Beyond my pay grade. :)

So would it be possible to use rich media (YouTube, Vimeo, etc) in comments just by dropping a link to the video in, much like WordPress does it internally for posts?

If so, this would be ideal, as then I guess the same rules could also apply with Twitter URLs, blog post URLs, etc? I do like how WordPress handles this in-post (especially blog post links, with the excerpt included, although I do wish they'd open in a new window).

I saw two markdown plug-ins on the repository. There's the one in use here on WP Tavern (though I can't recall the name of it), then I saw one that had more formatting options, but looked a little top-heavy on front-end.

I like the way Medium handles "markdown" (though I guess technically it isn't markdown in its purest form) with its front-end editor, and highlighting the copy allows you more formatting options. But then commenters would need to know that option was available.

I guess it comes down to that fine line between aesthetics and functionality. Which is why I could never be a dev. :)