yeah, but having to add the space is not obvious -- and this could be an easy programming fix (its a nice workaround, though). and the added space disappears again when quoting (in other words, its not just hide tags, it fails with just quote tags too)

That is true, but
1) It's still kind of annoying!
2) The space goes away when you preview, or press the Quote button (see above!).

I already reported this a while ago:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=983

Seems like it's not going to get fixed.

Perhaps you should try to report it to the phpbb coders instead.

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Sanity is for the weak.