haha, yes I get your point. Perhaps once the node submission preview button is clicked the node gets parsed through a basic handler, something like: 

my $paragraph_marker = '<p>';
my $break_marker = '<br>';

if ( $line_count > $x ){
    return "that's a lot of text, maybe you should include some <readm
+ore> tags";
}

if ( $paragraph_count == 0 && 
     $break_count == 0 && 
     $line_count > $y){
         return "you haven't formatted your post. It will be easier to
+ read if you separate your paragraphs with <p> tags.";
}

[download]
of course though, that'll take a bit of work to achieve, and it still won't stop the problem unless people read the warning message(s), which they don't seem to be doing currently...

In reply to Re^2: Suggestion - Node Submission Validation Checking by desemondo
in thread Suggestion - Node Submission Validation Checking by desemondo

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.