Some users have old ASCII habits for markdown, such as using /slashes/ for italics or underscores for bold. Perhaps translate these (when not part of such things as URLs) to markdown?
Edit: This is apparently already in place, with bold and italics.
Yepp 
Eventhough _italics_ gives italics, **bold** gives bold, and ((ooc)) gives ooc text.
I have also considered using backticks for commands, so that it is easier to help someone and tell them to type: help