I'm not one (usually - I have my moments), but people do have problems with the <a href=URL>Text</a> method and often make mistakes when learning.

One of the most popular solutions with message boards is the one I think was started with the UBB message board system.

At its simplest, the code is [url]enter the url[/url] which substitutes the text I have in bold for both the URL and Text portions in the HTML system. Short of trying to auto recognise a URL in text, it the the most efficient system I know of for a user trying to enter something along the lines of:

details can be found at http://www.mudcat.org/threads.cfm.

Its longer version is something like [url=enter url]enter text[/url] which I don't see as being much easier than the HTML version.

I provide both UBB methods in addition to HTML on the sites I maintain but as a user, tend to use UBB only where I wish to post URLs in the "simpler" form as I find it so much quicker than HTML.

Jon