There is a workaround to the links issue
To link to [code] www.irishtimes.com/ [/code] for example, just put in something like
www irish times dot com
Users will understand that and we won't have a bad link.
If you are promoting your own website and you put in a broken link like this to get around the anti-spam measures, your post will be deleted and you will be banned.
Brendan