I apologize for being snarky. I am aware of the usage, though I am more familiar with the form in which the asterisk comes at the beginning of the line. I always assumed that the construction came from the way asterisks are used in footnotes, though of course I could be wrong about that. I had not thought to look at the Wikipedia page, so thanks for the link.

Perhaps I should have said that the use of asterisks as a correction marker is in a lower register than I am used to seeing on LW, at least to my eyes. It is fine for IM conversation (though it still grates a little*) but less so for a non-real-time format where you have the luxury of editing. I'll acknowledge that I am at 31 on the older side for this forum and so possibly not fully au courant.

[Edited for formatting.]

* Which I'm trying to get over. I expect it annoys me for the same reason ending rants with "/rant" does, though on a smaller scale.