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Suggestion for those who wrote a long response that got lost because you have to login again

Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2019 8:44 pm
by StringerBell
I'm not sure where to post this so that people will see it (probably most won't see it here, but I wasn't sure where else would be appropriate).

I often see people mention that they wrote a really long post which then got lost because they got logged out. Since I get logged off pretty much after every post or like, I came up with a pretty easy workaround:

Instead of logging in again at the prompt, hit the back button on the browser. It brings you back to what you wrote. You can then highlight the entry, then log in again, and paste. It took me a while to realize I could do this, and I bet most people haven't stumbled upon it.

Where would be the most appropriate place to post this suggestion so that people see it?

Re: Suggestion for those who wrote a long response that got lost because you have to login again

Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2019 8:56 pm
by tommus
If someone plans on writing a long post, or even a medium post, compose it offline. Then copy and paste. That removes all risk of losing your post and wasting your time.

Re: Suggestion for those who wrote a long response that got lost because you have to login again

Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2019 9:02 pm
by lavengro
Thanks Stringerbell for the tip, very helpful. My practice had recently become routinely to copy a post before hitting either "preview" or "submit" just in case the 05:48 train from Paddington station were poised to come through and run amok.

Re: Suggestion for those who wrote a long response that got lost because you have to login again

Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2019 9:32 pm
by jeff_lindqvist
A simple copy/paste before submitting has done the job for me for the past 20 years. No reason to compose offline or to use other software.

Re: Suggestion for those who wrote a long response that got lost because you have to login again

Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 12:17 am
by aravinda
Morgana wrote:If people try these steps, does it solve the logging out problem for you?
rdearman wrote:1) log out of the forum.
2) clear your browser cache and all cookies for this site.
3) log back in and tick the "remember me" option

If this doesn't work, try one additional step between 1 and 2 of rebooting your router to get a new IP address (most people are on dynamic IP addresses)
They worked for me but I wonder if they haven't worked for others after having tried them.

Unfortunately, they haven't worked for me and it seems I'm not alone. I do really appreciate the great work admins and mods do, so I don't want to sound ungrateful but for the last few months or so this website has been kicking me out every few minutes (more like seconds). And during the last few days, in addition to logging me out, it has been logging me in as soon as I enter my password (without having to click). It's better in the sense that it is one click less but it looks weird.
I wouldn't have bothered if it was another website. I'd have simply left. The amount of activity we still see here is an indication as to how much we like/value/addicted to this forum.

Re: Suggestion for those who wrote a long response that got lost because you have to login again

Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 1:54 am
by aokoye
jeff_lindqvist wrote:A simple copy/paste before submitting has done the job for me for the past 20 years. No reason to compose offline or to use other software.

There are those occasional times, however, when I am clicking from tab to tab and accidently close out of the tab with whatever text I was writing in. That doesn't happen all that often, but it happens enough that if I am typing something important, I'll type it in a word document and then copy and paste. I know I'm far from the only person this happens to, my prefered social networking site saves what you type in the forums (prior to clicking submit) for this very reason. It was a requested feature, and yes human power wise, they're incredibly small given how larger their user base is (two people are do all of the programing, and the second person was hired maybe a year ago).

There are also times when I have to submit a very polished piece of writing to an organization via a text box as opposed to uploading a PDF or a Word document. I had to do that when I submitted a proposal for the conference I presented at earlier this year. Those are situations where it would be foolish for someone not to copy and paste from a separate document.

Re: Suggestion for those who wrote a long response that got lost because you have to login again

Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 10:27 am
by zenmonkey
jeff_lindqvist wrote:A simple copy/paste before submitting has done the job for me for the past 20 years. No reason to compose offline or to use other software.


select all, copy, before submit. works for me too.
It's been particularly problematic today.

My cache is clean, new IP every 12 hours, cookies removed. Still happening. The issue isn't local.

Re: Suggestion for those who wrote a long response that got lost because you have to login again

Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 12:41 pm
by rdearman
Morgana wrote:If people try these steps, does it solve the logging out problem for you?
rdearman wrote:1) log out of the forum.
2) clear your browser cache and all cookies for this site.
3) log back in and tick the "remember me" option

If this doesn't work, try one additional step between 1 and 2 of rebooting your router to get a new IP address (most people are on dynamic IP addresses)
They have worked for me, so if you have this problem it's probably worth a shot trying them.

These instructions were onky to solve the IP and cache issues we had when migrating over to a new system of load balancing. Not valid generally.

Re: Suggestion for those who wrote a long response that got lost because you have to login again

Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 12:50 pm
by PfifltriggPi
lavengro wrote:Just in case the 05:48 train from Paddington station were poised to come through and run amok.


Is this an expression of which I am unaware, or something which actually happens? Either way, I'm rather intrigued.

Re: Suggestion for those who wrote a long response that got lost because you have to login again

Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 3:54 pm
by rdearman
PfifltriggPi wrote:
lavengro wrote:Just in case the 05:48 train from Paddington station were poised to come through and run amok.


Is this an expression of which I am unaware, or something which actually happens? Either way, I'm rather intrigued.

I believe they are referring to the Captha questions, one or two of which are about what time some train leaves some station. :)