There's nothing that says you have to make so many posts or be a memeber for a specified time before using BBCodes. Most times, the problem I see that people are making is just s simple typo.
One day, I'll attempt to get around to giving a good clear tutorial on working with BBCodes. In the meantime, I'll just give these little hints...
1) For a url you can simply type www.(whatever the url is after the www).
2) Make sure you don't leave any spaces anywhere in the url.
For direct links such as (My Favorite Slipper Pattern):
1) Use same tips as above
2) Suppose the url where the pattern is found is
www.beverlyscrochetpatterns/slippers#3(It�s a bogus email address so don�t bother clicking) you would enter it as [url=]http://www.beverlyscrochetpatterns/slippers#3]My Favorite Slipper Pattern[/url] (Minus the "]" which I interjected just before the http-so that you could see exactly how it should be printed).
I hope everybody will give this a try and incorporate it into forum posting because it will be great to see what all everybody enjoys working up and drooling over.
In the meantime, I'll be happy to help out where I can.