Just FYI: if you have a URL to post, just post it, without commentary in your submission. If you have something to say about the article you're submitting, you can write a normal comment after posting it.
"Just FYI" If we are telling each other what to do and what we don't like, then I would say I don't like or agree with this attempt to tell someone else what to do over something so trivial and without some significant excuse or necessity.
> How do I make a link in a text submission?
> You can't. This is to prevent people from submitting a link with their comments in a privileged position at the top of the page. If you want to submit a link with comments, just submit it, then add a regular comment.
Maybe the design of the site should reflect the policy, instead of ambiguity that results in polluting the entire first page with meta-commentary about HN policy instead of the actual post.
There is no comment field in submissions. Click submit and see what the three fields are, none of them are "comment".
The site's design and behavior reflects the policy.
I posted something just the other day myself and don't remember how the field was lebeled, but I sure wrote a comment in it, because it was just the obvious thing to do. (and the comment appeared in the form of a regular comment as though I had just added a comment like anyone else, not with the url.)
So I don't know how people actually even write those posts with text and a url, since when I tried, it didn't do that, but, I also cannot begin to guess why anyone has a problem with it. Why in the world is it wrong to say why you posted something, what aspect of it you found noteworthy, as you post it?