When I said "GUI formatting bar", I meant hotbuttons that would insert code FOR the writer. Personally, I'm in support of bbcode. It's a standard that's been around for quite a while and it's short, versatile and stable enough for most stories. HTML support would be okay, but it's more complex and there's potential compatibility/security issues IMO. Another upside to the hotbuttons I think is that they visually teach the writer how to use the code without having to look it up.

I think most of us are in agreement however that Markup is a relatively new standard meant for limited use, and is insufficient for short stories and novellas.

I agree that Markdown is a poor standard. BBCode and HTML are tried and true. It's also a very good idea to add a GUI formatting bar because not everybody can/wants to learn all those codes. There's a bigger issue about not being able to upload complete story files.

Call me old-fashioned and that browser-based text editors are the latest and greatest, but I've gotten used to composing my writings in my own text editor, and copy-pasting into a browser is a pain. Adding to the pain of writing in a browser window is the risk that at any moment your work will be lost by an accidental navigation away or lapse in connection. I'd like to see the option of uploading complete story files to avoid these. A clever writer can use formatting codes to preemptively format their document, or edit it after. A clever coder can implement support for file types that provide their own formatting.

One last thing I noticed when making a new story: while using a mobile device, there's a big obnoxious ellipsis that tends to hover right in the text field. I understand that its purpose is to edit the document's attributes, but it's really distracting. Is there a way to make it stationary on the page instead of following you like the Eye of Sauron?