XHTML sounds scary to me. Once you put that X in the name I assume it’s over there, over that threshold of actually learning XML (as opposed to learning what it can do and collaborating with smarter folks who have actually learned it). That’s a pretty common threshold, from what I’ve seen. A lot of us can hack together HTML, maybe CSS or a bit of Javascript, but anything more is for ‘developers’.

Then the other night T. says, ‘Oh, XHTML is the same as HTML 4, you just have to close all your tags.’
Me: like meta tags and BRs, just close them?
T.: Yeah.
Me: [ ! ]

Turns out XHTML can be quite simple. Of course, I realize there’s more to it, but ‘just close all your tags‘ might be the line that gets people in the door.