In old Reddit on the left, there is a dedicated method of posting images or links. I can paste the link right into the URL box and the resulting post will look great on both old and new Reddit, linking directly to the article and showing the article thumbnail and etc. If I post an image, the resulting post on both old and new Reddit is an image.

Now in new Reddit on the right, there's nothing like that. There is JUST a generic post box. What am I supposed to do there?

If I want to post just a URL, what happens? Do I need to make sure to put JUST the URL in the body text to get same behavior that an old Reddit link post would become? If I put the link in new Reddit, it seems like half the time it just creates that old Reddit would call a text post, with just a URL in it. And similarly often when I post an image, it becomes a text post with image in it, not the old Reddit style where the post itself is an image (and links to an i.redd.it/image.jpg for example) image.

Is there some kind of protocol I'm not following here?

I realize the irony of using new Reddit to make this post (a text post with imagery) but most of the time I use old Reddit for posting and I'm mentally prepping for its demise any time now but I just can't seem to get this right.

just another example of enshitification https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/