# Can someone explain post formatting with HTML?

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-someone-explain-post-formatting-with-html/128958
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [September 18, 2019, 11:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-someone-explain-post-formatting-with-html/128958 "2019-09-18T23:25:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 2

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2019, 11:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-someone-explain-post-formatting-with-html/128958/2 "2019-09-18T23:38:10Z")

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Raw HTML would cause many security exploits (in posts). Only a very tightly whitelisted subset of tags and elements are allowed.

In general you should not be using HTML, use Markdown, per [Markdown Reference](http://commonmark.org/help)

Now for Admin, Customize areas where HTML is allowed as part of site setup and customization, admins can indeed put in whatever HTML they want.

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