I have a big problem with quotes used for emphasis. Because quotes around a phrase mean something else, and I end up reading whatever it is as being said, which leads to some really bizarre misunderstandings.

Me too. The other things--bold etc--aren't really used for anything else, so don't have this problem. I only see quotes rarely used for word emphasis, "thankfully". ;o)

Although, as you say, both asterisks and capslock are used for other things in internet interaction, which I guess is partly why I have a problem with them also. Asterisks very often make me blink, because I'm so used to reading them as people's actions on lj.

I find it easier to read on screen and I'm probably not the only one, so why not use it, where Industry Standards is not a consideration.

Some people have mentioned that italics are difficult to read onscreen--I hadn't had that problem, but this does make sense. dodyskin was saying elsewhere that fics aren't books, and shouldn't try to be. She also mentioned that they have a "different creative tradition", which, though I figured stuff like *asterisks* were a hold over from nonHTML forums for posting, wasn't a point I'd really grasped the importance of before she worded it that way. I still prefer the things I read to look a certain way, but I can certainly understand people who don't feel the need to make fic confirm to "book" standards. And for people who use the medium of fanfic to further fanfic as a form in its own right, more power to them.
/was that preachy? :o)

Tildes

So that's how you spell it!

And dashes I tend to read as em dashes -- the kind you might use to set off a paranthetical phrase -- so just around a word is a little odd, though not as brain-breaking as the others.

I hadn't thought about it that way. But I more often see hyphens used as word emphasis than dashes, and I get thrown off by that.