Original Post
I don't know if this will be helpful or useful, but I suspect it'll do some good since most people ignore the FAQ all together. I've seen quite a few posts where people don't know how to use the [code] and [source] tags, and I think this might help. I think the post box (where you type your message) should have some helper buttons above it. I've seen other forums that have them and they're useful because you don't have to remember forum code or look in the FAQ every time. Basically they're a few images (like a toolbar) with some javascript to put tags in the message box. For instance, a button that shows "<tt>code</tt>", when clicked, would put "<tt>[code][/code]</tt>" in the message box. "<b>b</b>" or "<b>bold</b>" would put "<tt>[b][/b]</tt>" in the box. Maybe if you highlight something and click the button it'll surround that text in the tags. It probably wouldn't be too hard to implement, and I suspect it'll eliminate most of confusion about forum code.