The Back Button and the Message Window

[thfenn]

Sometimes while I am drafting a new post (or replying) my internet connection gets interrupted, or freezes. I'll continue along my merry way writing, and then click 'submit'. Instead of posting the message, I'll get some error establishing that I've lost my connection. Because I write such long and erudite essays and firmly believe that everyone's entitled to my opinion, I'll desparately click BACK to try and return to the window where my text was, thinking that I can at least copy/paste what was there into a Word file and post when I'm connected again, but clicking BACK (IE) invariably returns me to a blank window, as if I'd never started writing. This has happened several times. I suspect that most users don't experience this, as most probably have pretty reliable connections, but I'm wondering if there is anyway I can ensure that clicking BACK returns me to the window with my text, before I pressed Submit. Thanks.

PS - writing from home. Been accessing the site via Bushnet easily. Thanks again for that.

[Michael@HQ]

Because I write such long and erudite essays...

Most of us don't have this problem!

A fix might be type your response into a Word processing program, save it, and then try to cut and paste it into the reply box in your browser. Low tech, but it might make sense in your situation, thfenn.

[RAY@HQ]

I've noticed this too, in a slightly different light. When I'm "sweeping" the forums, I use the 'view new posts' feature to list the threads... then I jump in and out of threads responding willy-nilly, trying to stay ahead of circle's post count.

After I respond and see my post in the thread, if I hit the 'back' button I go directly back to the results of my 'view new posts' query, skipping over the 'edit' page where I composed my response.

So, I don't have any answers (yet), but I can tell you that you're not the only one to experience this behavior.

[Markus_ls]

I had a similar problem with the website timing me out for inactivity (with the new software but not before) when I take a long time to compose. Two comments:

1. I try to protect myself with CTRL-A (select all) and CTRL-C (copy) to save my long writing on the clipboard in case I get booted off when I click "preview" or "submit".

2. It seems that when I am kicked out, if I enter my name and password into the error screen space that appears it will return me to the preview pane with my message entact.
(But I still prefer method 1 above to be safe.)


I lost a lot of long messages and got very frustrated when we first changed software and this was happening to me.