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 was able to post the exact same answer provided in the pastebin into a new answer without any problems ([10k+ only](https://stackoverflow.com/q/8242351/180239)).

I've also edited your answer to include the correct version.

> 
> Why so much CARE about formatting code?
> 
> 
> 

You must be new here...those filters originated out of necessity, not because some programmer felt funny. There are *many* quality filters at work in Stack Exchange, and every single one was introduced because it was *needed*.

**Edit:** On second thought, maybe it's a low-rep filter, which doesn't apply to me anymore.
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.