You would think in 2009 clients could support italics atleast.
Italics have been used for thousands of years in literature. It's something that a normal person might naturally expect to do, not nescessarily for sarcasm. But for emphasis in general, As you see italics used in the real world.
Only to be told that in the IRC world we abuse bold and other characters. The reverse control code is stupid and should be replaced by italic. Other clients took the lead on this 10 years ago, If mIRC was not so stubborn then it would have become standard by now, and would be better.
