If it is error message text (or some other plain text that contains <, >, #, or other characters that can confuse Discourse markdown,) then specify “text” as a lexing language:
```text paste error message here
```
If it is Ruby, then:
```ruby # code here
```
If it is Javascript, then:
```javascript /* js code here */
```
If it is HTML, then:
```html <!-- html here -->
```
If it is C, then:
```c // C code here
```
… etc. (Discourse code lexer recognizes the major programming languages.)
Yep! Discourse processes your post’s text through a Markdown language formatter, and implements this feature of Markdown. The Markdown formatter is also why posts of error messages and code can get so screwed up if people don’t use the triple backtick syntax!
Welcome Dylan … the wikipedia page (linked below) explains what markdown is in detail.
But it is basically a simple, human-readable text code that can be used to nicely format posting on the web or documents.
The forum system should have sent you a message explaining the basics of using markdown on the forum.
(Click your avatar menu at the top right, see if the welcome message from the system is there.)