Ugh - lost posts!

[Mercurius]

I have spent way too much time on my fair share of online forums, but I have lost more posts to this site than any other, and it isn't even close. What gives?

One example is what just happend to me: I started a long post and left it for a few hours then came back and spent time finishing it up, then tried to post it and, voila, gone. I hit back and...nothing. This sort of thing has happened a lot, but doesn't on "other" forums of a similar nature.

Any thoughts of changing forum types, or is this just me?

 

[Morrus]

What do you mean by "voila, gone"? Could you describe the error?

 

[Umbran]

One example is what just happend to me: I started a long post and left it for a few hours then came back and spent time finishing it up, then tried to post it and, voila, gone. I hit back and...nothing.

A few more details on the error would be helpful.

Also note - a whole lot can happen in a "few hours" in terms of your computer. Some of it happens on our end, and some of it on yours. One should not walk away from any computer activity for multiple hours and expect it to be as you left it when you return.

Save early, save often!

 

[jaerdaph]

This has happened to me occasionally.

Since you can walk away for the computer for awhile, I'm going to assume it's your own personal computer you are using. If this is the case (because you probably shouldn't do this on a a public or shared terminal), when you log in, make sure you check the box to stay logged in ("Remember Me"). Then remember to manually log out.

Every single time I've lost posts if I walk away for awhile is because I didn't log in and remember to check the stay logged in box.

 

[Mercurius]

I wish I saved the message I got, sorry, although it wasn't technically an "error" message afaik.

This is my personal computer and I am always logged into EN World, so that isn't the issue.

I'm not sure exactly why it happens, but the instance of losing a post is FAR greater on EN World than any other forum I've been on. I think it has something to do with the forum type, or perhaps how I have it configured, but I'm not sure how that could be. On other forums I inhabit, if I am typing up a post and accidently press Back or another link, and then go back to my post it is still there. Not so on EN World.

So yeah, I think it happens in one of two instances: Walking away from the computer for hours, continuing a post and then losing it when submitting (it doesn't save the info and seems to think I've logged out, even though I haven't and I don't need to log back in). Or when I accidently hit back or a hyperlink or some other key and leave the page and then try to return; although this itself is a mystery, as it rarely happens on other forums but seems to happen often here.

 

[jaerdaph]

On other forums I inhabit, if I am typing up a post and accidently press Back or another link, and then go back to my post it is still there. Not so on EN World.

That I have noticed - if I time out and get logged out from other vBulletin forums elsewhere, I'm usually asked to log back in and then my post goes through. Or I can "go back" in my browser and the text I typed is still there. But not at EN World.

 

[pawsplay]

I always Select All -> Copy before I submit a long post.

 

[jaerdaph]

I always Select All -> Copy before I submit a long post.

After a few lessons learned the hard way, I started doing that too.

 

[Morrus]

It often depends on the session lengths assigned by a board admin - how long the server remembers you're there in one session. The default is 15 minutes; many boards increase that - this requires extra resources, and is mainly used by board owners to pad their "users online" figure (since a session length of 1 hour will display four times as many users online as 15 minutes will).

 

[Plane Sailing]

It can also depend upon browsers, and how well they cache information. This depends a bit upon the browsers and a lot upon our vBulletin settings.

FWIW I think that ENworld should allow more cacheing than it does - if I go 'back' to a thread listing page, it always regenerates the whole listing. It would be much better to allow the back button to display a cached listing, especially for mobile or dial-up users. Then everyone has a choice of clicking on the link to the forum to get a fresh list, or using the back button to see the list they were working from.