Those tags you used for italics don't work here. However, they are type of tag that work over at DU. Just an observation.
The proper italics HTML tags that I used at first interfered with my paragraph structure - I had thought that perhaps [i][/i] tags also worked. I hit the post button instead of the preview button by mistake when I tried it.
What are the proper tags for paragraphs, again? It's been a while since I was on a site that requires them.
And there's no call for insults, I'm simply new here.