Yepp, that's right. But without the "wrap=hard", you could get one single long line which is almost impossible to read. So there is no perfect solution for all cases. I see three options

1) Remove "wrap=hard" and let the user do as the user wants. This can lead to very long lines almost impossible to read.
2) Keep "wrap=hard" and rely on the browser to put in CRLF between lines according to the textarea box during input. The result will then be the same as during editing. Of course this might 
require to make the textarea width wide enough on small screens not to get too many CRLFs. The default "Message width" is 78 chars, but on modern browsers some JavaScript code automatically sets 
the width to equal the screen width which normally is wider.
3) Add artificial CRCL like every 40 or 80 chars. This is the "beautifying" K.O. mentioned and will never be perfect. Not sure if elog should touch the text the user enters.

Looking at the three options, I kind of conclude that 2) would still be the best.

Stefan