You're coding HTML. Don't add the <p> and <br> tags.

The forum software automatically adds breaks at each CR in your posted comment. I've complained about it to Scott ('admin') here, it hasn't changed yet.

Another artifact is that various tags such as blockquote, ul, and ol, add copious amounts of whitespace.

I also strongly encourage the use of a <blockquote type="cite"> tag rather than the /. style 'blockquote & italicize. Pixel alignment means that large blocks of italicized text are difficult to read online.
By contrast, the bluelined (Mozilla, Netscape, and other browsers) quoted style of a blockquote block is quite easy to identify and remains clear to read
. Note that I'm writing this set of text (beginning "I also strongly..." as one paragraph -- the breaks are all being inserted due to the tagging I employ.

Peace.