We could also make the default text for the textbox something like:

     <p>This is a paragraph</p>
     <code>#!/usr/bin/perl -w
     print "This is a block of code";< /code>
     <p>Yet another paragraph</p>
[download]

That way, even if you had no idea why this way is recommended, you'd know that it was recommended. Signed in users would be able to turn it off in preferences, it turns itself off once you get beyond level 2 or 3, or it only appears for anonymous monks.

... or it'll backfire horribly and every new node will end up with "<p>Yet another paragraph</p>" stuck on at the end.

I still think that, for newcomers asking simple questions, the HTML formatting gets in the way. But some default text inside the (still too narrow) input box would definitely help.

I hope this subject does not get simply forgotten. Small details like this one don't really help banish the widespread prejudice that Perl is an arcane language, full of inconvenient oddities all over the place.