Comment 3 for bug 391780

It is probably also worth noting that Server Fault and a third incarnation targeted at end-user support will be using the same system. If the popularity of Stack Overflow is any indication, many people will rather quickly be familiar with this mechanism for hyperlinks both within and outside of the LP user base.

Using Wikicode could work, but it'd be (I think) too intrusive in emails. This setup lets the plaintext still go out and be readable/parseable by humans, while the site would just render it with a hyperlink and hide the bracketed notation altogether.