Question: The site can not accept an answer complaining about badly formatted code.
I did all the 4 spaces thing, etc. And still after 3 hours the site did not accept my post.

Here is the copy of the answer I submitted initially: <http://pastebin.com/P2HfWyCZ>

Look, there is nothing strange about it, I used the {} at first, then switched to 

```
<pre><code>

```

and nothing worked.

This is annoying and unnecessary. Why so much CARE about formatting code?
Writing a "look here" + pastebin url seems like the most simple and workable approach, but defeats the purpose of stackoverflow

> 
> Oops! Your answer couldn't be submitted because:
> 
> 
> Your post appears to contain code that is not properly formatted as code. Please indent all code by 4 spaces using the code toolbar
>  button or the CTRL+K keyboard shortcut. For more editing help, click
>  the [?] toolbar icon.
> 
> 
>

Answer: 
I'm guessing that the issue was because you mixed a lot of code with English. For example:

---

Remember this are bitfields and & is the "bit and" operator NOT the
 boolean && GDK\_WINDOW\_STATE\_ICONIFIED =2 or 10 on binary and
 event->new\_window\_state is an int which second bit is active

A Widget can be both maximized AND minimized at the same time,
 GDK\_WINDOW\_STATE\_MAXIMIZED = 4 or 100

---

If you use the backtick (`) around inline code, it improves readability:

---

Remember this are bitfields and & is the "bit and" operator *not* the boolean `&&
GDK_WINDOW_STATE_ICONIFIED =2` or `10` on binary
and `event->new_window_state` is an `int` which second bit is active

A Widget can be both maximized *and* minimized at the same time,
`GDK_WINDOW_STATE_MAXIMIZED = 4` or `100`

---

I edited your answer to clean it up a bit... Compare [Your pastebin version](https://stackoverflow.com/revisions/8241865/3) with [the version I clean up for you](https://stackoverflow.com/revisions/8241865/5) and tell me if you think it's better having the answer on the site, formatted nicely.

> 
> This is annoying and unnecessary. Why so much CARE about formatting
>  code? Writing a "look here" + pastebin url seems like the most simple
>  and workable approach, but defeats the purpose of stackoverflow
> 
> 
> 

I disagree completely. It's really not that hard to format code properly. I'm sorry you're frustrated, but linking to a site where someone has to go to review the code is *not* a better solution in any way. 

What happens if the pastebin is deleted? Your answer becomes useless. What happens if you want to refer to the pastebin? I don't want to switch between tabs just to understand your answer. Also, doesn't it take *more* time to open pastebin, create a paste, and insert the link than it does to just paste code on So and click the "format as code" button?

I see no advantage to using pastebin. What I see is a new user who is frustrated... we're here to help! If you can learn [how Markdown formatting works](https://meta.stackoverflow.com/editing-help) you'll get *a lot more* enjoyment out of StackExchange.
Rules and filters aside, it probably is a good idea anyway to make your questions as easy to read (by anyone) as possible. Since we're all here on a voluntary basis, the easier it is for other users to understand your problem, the more likely they will be to help out.

It's not even a matter of whether they will be more *inclined* to help out; if someone looks at your question and can't understand it, she wouldn't be able to answer your question even if she wanted to.

Posting a pastebin URL *is* much easier... for the poster. For someone who wants to answer the question, however, it requires visiting another site, having to copy and paste code if she wishes to provide examples or to annotate problematic code, etc.

And leaving aside all of that, if someone is scanning the site for problems to solve, since there's no code in your question (or at least, there wasn't any in the original revision), it is much easier to overlook or misunderstand the issue.