Draft function, with autosave

[Bob]

Probably difficult to include.

I noticed free email accounts -- gmail, yahoo -- that they automatically save your emails while you're writing.  If you close the page, your emails are still there, saved as drafts.

I wonder if it's possible (or a good idea) to have that here.  In this box or the quick reply boxes.  If I hit post and it doesn't actually post for some reason, my post is gone.  I work around that by highlighting all the text and copying it before I hit.  But I do that every time.  If it just saved it like email... There would never be a chance of losing a post again.  Who hasn't lost a post on here?

[outin]

Probably difficult to include.

I noticed free email accounts -- gmail, yahoo -- that they automatically save your emails while you're writing.  If you close the page, your emails are still there, saved as drafts.

I wonder if it's possible (or a good idea) to have that here.  In this box or the quick reply boxes.  If I hit post and it doesn't actually post for some reason, my post is gone.  I work around that by highlighting all the text and copying it before I hit.  But I do that every time.  If it just saved it like email... There would never be a chance of losing a post again.  Who hasn't lost a post on here?

It seems to be very frequent on this site. I also try to remember to copy before sending but often forget and it's all gone. Quite annoying...But do you think that the autosave function would be any more reliable?

[Bob]

I don't know how that would work.  I've never seen it in a forum.  Email is a lot simpler -- Save to the draft folder.  Unless there could be a draft post folder here in your user profile settings.  Otherwise I was thinking it would have to save your posts "to" your view of that webpage.

[nilsjohan]

If I hit post and it doesn't actually post for some reason, my post is gone.

We did not have the impression that this was a frequent problem but if it is, it has to be fixed. Could you and anyone else having the same problem give me some more information? For example:
1. What do you get when you hit post? An error message?
2. Does it usually happen during a specific time of the day?
3. Approximately what percentage of your postings is affected?
4. Does it often happen for you that other pages on this forum and website are not loaded promptly?

[outin]

We did not have the impression that this was a frequent problem but if it is, it has to be fixed. Could you and anyone else having the same problem give me some more information? For example:
1. What do you get when you hit post? An error message?

A screen saying that the page could not be loaded.

2. Does it usually happen during a specific time of the day?

I haven't noticed. I usually read the forum early in the morning (Finnish time) or late in the evenings.

3. Approximately what percentage of your postings is affected?

I'd estimate 20%, but on some days it can happen almost every time I try to post. Sometimes it takes more than one retry to get through.

4. Does it often happen for you that other pages on this forum and website are not loaded promptly?

I haven't noticed.

[Bob]

We did not have the impression that this was a frequent problem but if it is, it has to be fixed. Could you and anyone else having the same problem give me some more information? For example:
1. What do you get when you hit post? An error message?
2. Does it usually happen during a specific time of the day?
3. Approximately what percentage of your postings is affected?
4. Does it often happen for you that other pages on this forum and website are not loaded promptly?

1.
Sometimes the page freezes.  Or maybe it loads a blank page.  I'm not sure.  It's Murphy's law.  If I don't save my text before I post, it might happen then.  I'm on this site more, so it's more likely I'll run into a glitch (if it happens on other sites).
2.
Not sure.  I've been on a few times when it says the website is being updated but that's not an error.
3.
Probably less than 1%.  I'm not sure.
4.
The pages load.  Everything will look normal.  It's just when I click on the 'post' and then it takes longer.... Then it dawns on me that I'm about to lose my post.  Sometimes if the page hasn't changed I can quickly copy the text, whether that's still possible or not.  Other times the text is still viewable, at least part, but not copyable.  So I can type out what I see on another program to copy it.

I use the quick reply feature most of the time.  If there's an image or video, then to go from quick reply to the regular post page with the 'preview' button on quick reply. 


Could be my computer, etc.  But if the site auto-saved what's in this box, that would overcome it.  Even if it did save all the posts into one folder in the user profile that would work.  Any auto-saved posted could include what page they went along with.  That sounds doable.  Haha... Except I'd still probably ctrl-a/ctrl-c.  If the time interval was too short, I'd still risk losing a piece of my post anyway.  The auto-save feature would have to be every ten seconds or something really short like that.

[Bob]

Another one.... Posting too fast.

[tromboneal]

The forum at bikeforums.net has this feature, as do a number of other forums.  I forget exactly how it works, but you can do an undo in a reply and it will go grab the old text.

[quantum]

It's happened far too often that I went out seeking solutions for it.  

First to answer Nils' questions:

1. What do you get when you hit post? An error message?

Usually a non-response.  A page that hangs just after hitting the post button

2. Does it usually happen during a specific time of the day?

No specific time pattern

3. Approximately what percentage of your postings is affected?

I'd say 1-2%.  It may seem insignificant.  But when that 1% happens to be a long response that took you an hour to write it is a big deal.  

4. Does it often happen for you that other pages on this forum and website are not loaded promptly?

Yes.  Frequently actually.  Usually for only a short period of minutes.  

***
A further note.  Doing a couple of under the hood tweaks in Firefox has also greatly reduced the number of lost posts.  

The default Backspace key mapping in Firefox is to act as a previous page button.  If for some reason you were typing in a form box and the focus shifted outside of that text box that Backspace key would move you to the previous URL in your history.  Going forward again would not bring back your text.  

Solution is here:
https://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.backspace_action


***

In my research I dug up this wonderful plugin called Lazarus: Form Recovery for Firefox and Chrome.  It saves all text you type into form boxes, and it works for all websites.  There are numerous security features such as an AES encrypted database, auto wiping the database after a specified time interval, and non-recording of sensitive credit card numbers.  

https://getlazarus.com

Yes, I have had to put it to use on Pianostreet.  It does work quite well.  

[Bob]

Interesting.

That's the grind -- It doesn't happened often, but when it does you lose a post you were working on for a while.

Made worse because you have to close the tab/web browser eventually, but it seems like the text should be there somewhere.

[Bob]

Here's one.  I just lost a post.

I was in this thread...
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=54035.0

I clicked the little reply button.  Usually I use the quick post box or hit preview from the quick post box.

Under the reply button page I hit post.  I got an error message.  I'm on IE11.

[Bob]

Another one.  About a minute ago.

Tried to make a new thread.  First attempt failed.  Luckily I save the guts of the post.
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=54631.0

[Bob]

Accidentally bumping the back button or backspace key.... Ouch.  It's totally gone then.


Maybe if there's a 'save as draft' button somehow, like email.... So I could hit that as I type a post and don't have to think about the whole post possibly disappearing on me....  And then if the 'save as draft' function happened right before the actual post is posted, if the actual posting screws up, there's still a draft. 

Or better yet, maybe an automatic 'save as draft' that runs every five seconds.  Nothing for the user to have to bother with that way.