I seem to cannot post pictures. All that comes out is the link. Is there something wrong?
You need to wait until you are at least a junior member to post pictures.
I believe that once you become a Junior member, any picture that you attempted to post will then appear as a picture instead of a link.
In order to become a Junior Member you need to have at least 30 activity and you get up to 14 activity every two weeks provided that you made at least one post in that two week period and you cannot have more activity then posts.
Newbies aren't allowed to post pictures at the moment, only links. I guess this is a safety precaution to stop bot accounts spamming nsfw images?
Get someone that's not a newbie to quote your post. It'll show the images there.
and when your account already reach Jr.member, upload your pics using imgur.com and post the link in your msg.
goodluck