However, WRT to your point about badly formatted posts, the majority of them [badly formatted posts] that I've seen appear to be down to the inappropriate use/lack of CODE tags - which, AFAIK, aren't standard HTML markup.

Some posters do try and address the problem, by using PRE tags, the majority of which are then, to some degree, castigated for it - normally by monks that are better versed in the arts of posting &/or markup.

Such use [of PRE tags] is understandable, since the hint If you think you're going to use <pre> tags — don't! Use <code> tags instead!... is way off the bottom of the visible page on my browser (and I use quite a small font size - the line Posts may use any of the... is typically only partially visible at the bottom of the page).

Maybe a solution could be a browser popup window, that can be enabled or disabled in the monks home node (or per-session and the setting maintained via a cookie for AM), containing either (an expanded version of) the hints or possibly the editing page...

The solution presented- time and time again on PM- is to use the copious amounts of whitespace to place a tiny box of common tags adjacent to the form. You'd need maybe 4 lines. It'd be more than worth it seeing as a significant amount of our posters here are new or not bothered to wade through Yet Another Markup.

My comment here, however, is instead of castigating noobs for tag ignorance, to understand where it comes from and deal with it effectively; this instead of chiding a newcomer asking a perl question.