Seems like, since the new site rolled out, more people are botching the posting of links, meaning that anyone who wants to see it has to cut and paste said link into their browser. But it's really easy.
Copy the link just like you would otherwise. Type anything at all into your topic. Select what you just typed and hit the button that looks like two links of a chain with a green cricle hanging off the right one. That will open a text box and you'll be prompted to enter the url (that you just copied) into that box.
There you have it. Then you'll have a handy link with blue underline that someone can just click and, possibly, enjoy.