@ned and 
@dantheman and 
@sneak as regards to improving the editing on https://steemit.com - This looks like most of the code required to make it fully WYSIWYG editing, newbie friendly, and it is modular so it can have basic or advanced modes or as desired in between.
I am perfectly comfortable with writing markup, having a lot of experience with HTML and CSS, but most new users are more in a mind of Microsoft Word with its buttons and WYSIWYG display. Not only that, look a bit closer at the screenshot from the website above. The edit screen can be free of boxes and frames if you like.
I know of only one or two small deviations in the Steemit markdown interpreter from the common github flavour, and these would be easily added to this editor, and with inline editing, the user would literally see exactly how their post looks, instantly, no scrolling back and forth between code.
There is even a plugin that handles automatic upload and addition of images, which act as characters on the layout (same as steemit markdown) already made.
I just wanted to give a heads-up about this editor because it looks like most of the work is already done for it to be used on steemit.com (indeed, any javascript based interface at all). This is applicable to any web based or javascript/browser based interface for the Steem forum
