Losing Everything- a tale of the Back button

[Guest Crysthala]

So lately, I've been doing a round robin with a friend of mine and was foolish enough to forget to include a title in the submission form that pops up when one clicks "Add Chapter To Story." I was told I should correct my mistake and pushed the Back button to try to do so, and found that the entire form had been wiped. (It seemed rather passive-agressive to me.) Unfortunately, I had written my chapter in the submission window and didn't have another copy of it. I had to rewrite the chapter. It was extremely annoying, not only for me, but for my friend, who had to wait patiently for another hour or two while I rewrote the chapter.

That's not the only form that gets wiped if someone pushes the Back button to correct a mistake. The story submission form does the exact same thing. For instance, I once skipped over the Subcategory option when submitting a story, after wading through a sea of and picking out the perfect content codes for my story. I had to go back and get them all again, as well as filling in every other box. Again. It was very irritating- I already did it once! As Korn would say, I did my time.

Perhaps now, or perhaps not until after the archive-changing happens, if it isn't too terribly much trouble, could somebody do something about that? I know most websites have a thing now that keeps the stuff you put into a form if you press the back button, but I'm not sure how to do it. *Dreamweaver 8 noob* It would be really nice for silly people like me, whose eyes like to forget important boxes, to be Saved By the Coding People, as it were. It would be extremely merciful on the part of TPTB, as I'm tired of learning difficult lessons. *sniff*

Sorry for the long post, but I like to be detailed. In summary, I'd appreciate it very much if you would consider implementing a back-button-error-message-of-doom rescue tool in the future. I like keeping things off my nerves- the plot bunnies get all cluttered up in them otherwise.

Highest regards and thanks for humoring me,

Crysthala

[DemonGoddess]

How most any posting software of this kind works, is that if you click the back button, what you typed in to the posting area will not be saved. Doesn't matter if it's forum software, writing software, or whatever. Something I'll do in the forum, for example, if making a very long post, is work it out in notepad or a wordprocessor or something, so that I don't lose everything if I should hit the back button by mistake, or something else which would mean all my post that I worked on, isn't THERE any more.

So, for your for instance, what I'd do is just copy/paste it into notepad, and if you then find you have to do something like hit the back button, you STILL have what you want to post available to you.

The thing to bear in mind, is that unlike mail software which will save drafts if you set it up that way, most software such as this works where the data you input is to be posted to a field in the database in a table. That's why when you hit the back button, it all goes away. If you post without filling in the chapter title field, it's not a big deal to begin with. It will default to the next number sequence for chapters for your particular story. Then, you can always go back and edit the chapter and change the title later if need be.

[Foerick]

I learnt long ago that if I was going to post more than 3 paragraphs on a forum post or such that I would do it in word or notepad first. I once did a long post to join a guild in a game and hit the back button twice by accident, once was key press and once the button. My third attempt was done in word then pasted into the post.

This also does a grammar and spelling check, so it's all good.

[Guest Crysthala]

Hmm. Well, I think I can handle writing stuff down in Notepad before I post it (that's usually what I do anyway), but I don't think the software will default to the number sequence with the Add Chapter to Story button- that's where I left out the title. I think it does revert to numbers in the normal chapter adding area from the user panel, but the one put in for round-robins doesn't.

Fair enough. I'll just have to be more responsible, won't I? All right, thanks for letting me bother you.

[DemonGoddess]

The software will autofill with the next number in sequence for chapters, if you do not title the chapter. You can always go back and edit it to an actual title after your initial addition ya know.