Start-reset markup language

A start-reset markup language is a fairly common type of esoteric markup language supported by many primitive chat platforms (namely, IRC and Minecraft) that uses a "start formatting" and "reset all formatting" syntax for its markup. An example of this formatting type that uses the "\" character as a formatting starter is:

This seems like an utterly stupid sort markup language- every time you reset, you have to start all formatting you want to continue over again- but it's actually used quite commonly, most notably in Minecraft and on IRC.