Articles on Allmende are written in a small, purpose-built text format. It knows exactly four building blocks: text, sections, links and images. Text can additionally be set in bold, in mono or in serif display. Everything else is plain text.
Text
Any line that isn't a heading is text. Lines that follow each other directly belong to the same paragraph, so you can wrap long sentences freely.
A blank line starts a new paragraph, like the one you're reading now.
Styles
Three styles can be applied anywhere inside text and headings:
**bold** sets text in bold, for the few words a reader must not miss.
__serif__ sets text in serif display, for names, titles of works and terms, such as Governing the Commons.
Backticks set text in mono, for code, file names and literal input. Mono is taken exactly as written, so **this** stays as typed.
Bold and serif can be combined, as in bold serif. A marker without a closing partner, like a lone ** here, simply stays visible.
Sections
A line starting with # begins a new section; the rest of the line is its heading. Each section gets an anchor named after its heading, so this one can be linked to as #sections.
There is only one heading level: ## and deeper count the same. The article title is set separately and isn't part of the text. Readers can fold a section away by clicking its heading.
Links
[label](url) turns the label into a link, for example to the Allmende article on Wikipedia. The label may use styles, as in a bold link, but links can't contain other links.
Only web addresses, e-mail addresses and links within the page are allowed. Anything else is dropped from the link.
Images
 adds an image. Write it inside the paragraph it belongs to: it doesn't show up in the text itself, but in a row right below the paragraph.
Several images in one paragraph stand side by side and wrap into further rows when they don't fit.
The description says what the image shows, for people who can't see it. Each image links to its source.