Dale, please note that your long url has made the screen
"go wide"; i.e., there is a scroll bar along the bottom and
one has to scroll over to see the reply button. All of the
preceding and
follow-up messages will also be in this wide format unless
entry is done with forced returns, like I've done here.

this is the reason folks use free services such as
tinyurl.com or shorl.com

to answer your question, I think this is site dependent.
here, for example, you have to use the URL UBB Code, just
like you do to Bold or Italicize text.