yes. Yes you are.
BBCode, consisting of an extremely limited set of tags that are pretty intuitive, and all of which have buttons above for them, doesn't distract from your ability to learn HTML
For a link, click on that picture of the world with a file in front of it. if you hover over them and look at the info field at the very bottom of the browser window, it will tell you what each does (though most are obvious).
This has been my official "holier than thou" post for the day. Glad to get it done so much sooner.
Ah...I was expecting alt text from the button images. I should have checked the bottom as well. Thanks for the tip.
As for the other, I've been involved with various boards over the years and since almost all of them had the HTML enabled to a limited extent, I never bothered much with the BBCode myself. I'm sure I can figure it out if I apply myself though.
Spriggan: Hehe. Thanks for the offer. I am appropriately shamed by my tabled layout. The truth is, I threw it up super quick, over a year or so back, and then never bothered to relay it out in CSS. I actually play with CSS every day, and I keep thinking that I should fix the things you've mentioned, but my current job has kept me busy enough that sometimes I just shudder at the idea of coming home and working on web design.
(The problem with the colours is.....well, it's not that I have an awesome monitor. Quite the opposite. I designed it on the only computer I had at the time. A two year old laptop. The colour is scheiss. On my work computer, I can tell that the colours are too dark. I'm saving up, hoping to get a new computer soon and better monitors.)