# Strikeout threw out? Strikethrough strikes out, throughout?

**URL:** <https://talk.commonmark.org/t/strikeout-threw-out-strikethrough-strikes-out-throughout/820>\
**Category:** Extensions\
**Created:** [October 17, 2014, 8:39pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/strikeout-threw-out-strikethrough-strikes-out-throughout/820 "2014-10-17T20:39:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 13

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**Author:** ![chrisalley](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/chrisalley/32/906_2.png) [@chrisalley](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/chrisalley)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 2:48pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/strikeout-threw-out-strikethrough-strikes-out-throughout/820/13 "2014-10-18T14:48:08Z")

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> [@mofosyne](#):
>
> Basically \<s\> is for public consumption, while \<del and \<ins\> is for internal consumption. E.g. during publishing, the del and ins tag may be removed.

From the [`<del`\> spec](http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/edits.html#the-del-element):

> This value may be shown to the user, but it is primarily intended for private use.

As it can be shown to the user, why not always use `<del>` instead of `<s>`? More importantly for us, why should Markdown support both? If there is no practical reason, I suggest _only_ supporting `<del>` via `~~` and saving a lot of confusion.

I may be mistaken, but `<s>` feels like a legacy element in the same way that `<b>`, `<i>`, and `<u>` do.

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_[View the full topic](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/strikeout-threw-out-strikethrough-strikes-out-throughout/820)._