Community Forums

Gary.Jones · 11-19-2021, 04:47 PM

Frankly, I am not sure what is happening. I am a touch typist and I routinely type with no/few errors at 70-80 wpm. However, for the past ~ 6 months, the following has happened to me several times. Because I type fast, I tend to type longer posts (maybe I am also a little detailed in my posts

) but I have typed a handful of long post responses to difficult questions. And for no reason that I can figure, all of a sudden, the window simply disappears from the screen and I realize that I have lost every word of the post.... its like I made no post at all. I have to assume that my fingers just hit a wrong key or wrong key combination that instructs the web page to erase everything and close the window. Of course this has been driving me crazy. I have no idea what I type or mistype to delete the whole window.

Many software packages on the web has a capability that if you might accidentally delete a whole post, the software comes back and ask "Do you really want to delete this whole page/post" and it gives you the opportunity to confirm that you do want to erase everything that you typed.

Is it possible to add that capability to this forum web page? Is it a switch that all you have to do is turn it on and its built in already or something that is not possible?

It sure is frustrating for me to lose three or four paragraphs of response to someone else's question .... I assume I am the one responsible, but I have no earthly idea what combination of missed keys I have had to press to instantly delete everything....

Gary

**Lt Dan** · 11-19-2021, 05:58 PM

I have that happen occasionally and traced it down to accidently hitting the Alt+Left Arrow/Home key at the same time. If you immediately go to the upper part of the browser and hit the forward arrow it may return you to the page you were working on. That may or may not be your problem, but it was mine. As for the undo feature, generally that's part of a word processing problem like Word so I don't know of any way that could be incorporated into a forum but others may have ways it could be done.

YC1 · 11-19-2021, 06:18 PM

It happens to me sometimes and I have not found a recovery method.

Often as I catch myself getting long I will do a copy and then paste into a new word document where I know how to recover stuff. It does nice spell checking too.

I wish the nice formatting would follow me back when I do a copy and paste back to the thread I want to post.

And wouldn't it be nice to be able to drag and drop pictures? Just a wish list of course.

astrnmrtom · 11-19-2021, 06:58 PM

I've had it happen to me on occasion. I write long posts and am a SLOW typist so it also deletes significant chunks of my life. Sometimes I just give up which probably is a relief to many on these forums. I'm pretty sure the reason my wife has never joined the forum is she doesn't anyone to connect her to the guy who says in 1000 words, what could be said in 25 - me.

Psneeld · 11-19-2021, 07:05 PM

Could be wrong...but I have had a time out feature that eliminates whatever I have typed and took too long.

If long posts..type in a word or note function then copy when ready.

If on another page looking something up...just come back to your post and type a letter, then delete it.

Old-Biscuit · 11-19-2021, 08:16 PM

Happens to me also and I am a 2 finger/1 thumb typist

I know it is something I have done but have no clue and when gone it is gone

Sometimes I don't retype the post and just move on

YC1 · 11-19-2021, 09:49 PM

If I am getting long and begin to get nervous I will go ahead and post it, then begin editing it. Editing is only open for about an hour so I have to keep that in mind.

Gary.Jones · 12-02-2021, 02:34 PM

Havent seen the forum administrators respond that they can make this change (to add an "are you sure you want to delete?" or that the forum posts what you have written up to the point of a sudden erasure before what was written is lost, so I guess that iRV2 cannot make this change....? Is that correct?

Gary

**NLOVNIT** · 12-02-2021, 08:34 PM

This version of vBulletin is limited in what we can customize & this is one of it's limitations.

I've not encountered a time out. I always check the Remember Me box when I login, so I'm assured the site won't boot me when I change pages or hit Post to a message I've typed.

I also do what others do, if I'm crafting a long post, I copy it to MS Word before I get too far into something I don't want to lose. When my connection or the site has a hiccup, I don't want my efforts to vanish into cyberspace.

High Road Travelers · 12-02-2021, 09:25 PM

I just tested what was happening to Lt Dan, and it works just as he said. I didn't doubt it, but I had never had this problem happen to me.

If you hold the 'Alt' key and hit the 'left arrow' it is the same as hitting the 'back' arrow in your browser. - So just hit the 'forward' arrow in your browser and it brings you back to what you were typing in the forum page.

The 'Alt' 'Home' combination does a similar disappearing act, but you then need to hit the 'back' arrow of your browser to get back to the forum.

There are probably a number of key combinations that will move you to weird places, such as 'Alt' 'Tab' will take you to other open tabs if you have any open.
There may be other key combinations or program glitches that could cause these issues, but at least watch out for holding the 'Alt' key down by mistake.
Thanks,