Is there a rule against which markdown codes are allowed in formatting text for easy reading? It's my impressing that a lot of text that is displayed that isn't code is displayed using code tags to control the way it's output.

Is it alright for me to say, I have these four items, apples, oranges, peaches, and pears to choose from. When it's a list of items that I hope to stand out rather than code that someone will execute?

I have studied a lot of details of markdown and am still studying how to make my messages easy to read. I'm learning new things every day. I even go back and edit many of my previous messages as I learn.

But looking at a recent edit and not on the edit purpose, it appears to be suggesting that I can't use the backtick for formatting when it's not code.

Loosing this as an option, will make my messages even harder for me to review when checking for adequacy.

I'm asking question for input because of a recent edit of one of this answer:
http://meta.askubuntu.com/revisions/16120/4

Which says: Please don't use code formatting for emphasis

First I really appreciate people taking the time to help make my answers (as well as all all the other answers on SE) easy to read. But some of the changes as in the case of revision #4 of that particular message, makes my reading it substantially more time consuming and requiring more effort.

I can tell that many of our users go far in trying to make their messages easy to read. They add pictures, when sometimes I think the text would be easier.

I often try to put lots of white spaces in my messages, when some people try not to use white spaces and put what I consider too much into one paragraph.

Thanks in advance for comments from others on permission for using the code formatting markdown feature for readability.