Lickable clink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIyl-AqSUU8
Why Post #1 doesn’t render links is an old and deep FR mystery....
Not sure if anyone else answered this question, but I don't feel like slogging through the whole thread, so I'll just spout off with my "conspiracy theory" on your observation.
I've wondered about that myself. Here's what I suspect:
Post #1 is entered at the same time as the body of the posted text. That text is precoded (even if you do not do it yourself) with HTML. Consequently the program is looking for HTML tags in Post #1 right along with the tags it sees in the article. So if you don't use the < a href=" > format, it leaves the link cold.
I think.
Maybe.
Could be.
(But who really knows for sure?)
I’ve never had trouble posting links in post #1.