It's horrible. Not because of the way it's not really a complete standard, but more because of the fact users get so much input into it and can screw things up so well. Trying to generate valid XML out of it isn't at all easy. Thankfully, Beautiful Soup, a wondrously lax HTML parser, came in and saved most of the day.
Don't get me started on Wikitext. What's that you say? Start and end tags the same? Tags with multiple meanings? Aaarrrgh.
At least Micronatia is progressing at a very good speed, and teaching me even more lessons about designing massive bespoke web applications, one of which is probably "don't do it by yourself".
In case you didn't realise, ByteHoard3 is on temporary hold until I finish the inital Micronatia coding marathon. Sorry 'bout that, but I can't program two things at once. (Yet.)