Posted a chapter this morning, now it's...NOT THERE?

[Ghost-of-a-Chance]

I added a chapter to “A New Lease on Life” around maybe five this morning. This was the second try for that particular chapter as my browser crashed halfway through the first time. (Not AFF’s fault, my computer can be a dick.) I was sure posting it worked this time, but come this evening, (about eight) the chapter is missing! Is there some possibility it just hasn’t synced yet or something, or is the whole thing just gone? I checked my email in case there was a problem with the chapter or its contents (warranting removal or whatnot) but I haven’t gotten any notices from the site, even in spam.

Normally, I’d be backing up the changes I’m making as I go since I’m making corrections, fixing formatting, AND making changes as I import from my other sites. This time? Yeaaaaah...I forgot and that’s totally on me. I’m seriously kicking myself for it, considering the amount of corrections and changes that went into that particular chapter. If there’s any chance I won’t have to do that chapter over again a third time, I’d take that chance even if the formatting’s all buggered up. The dialogue and wording changes and error corrections are what’s really important.

The affected archive is http://cartoon.adult-fanfiction.org Category Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the affected story is 600095128. (Title: A New Lease on Life) Missing chapter is 37: This is How the World Ends. Previous chapter (36: Dragons at the Door) is still there. (Note that the chapter numbers don’t match up with the automatic numbering by the site because of the Prologue.)

...is there ANY possibility this chapter just hasn’t gone live yet, or got misplaced in the system?

[BronxWench]

Hi,

I’m not seeing any staff action for your story, so that’s not the issue. I’m also not seeing your Chapter 37 either. There isn’t a queue for new chapters to be uploaded, so it isn’t that. And unfortunately, we wouldn’t be able to recover anything you tried to post.

As far as the technical details go, which browser do you use? Historically speaking, we have the most issues with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, but even browsers which generally work can have moments.

[Ghost-of-a-Chance]

So it’s not likely a site/content issue, then. Maybe related to the previous crash...

Quote

And unfortunately, we wouldn’t be able to recover anything you tried to post.

Dang it...I was afraid of that. Had a feeling, honestly. There’s a reason we’re not supposed to make edits directly into the post box on writing sites. (Again, knew better, still made the mistake, won’t make it again.) Good thing I started the edits over in Word.

For the record, I use Firefox exclusively and keep it up-to-date. Chrome makes my computer crash and IE and Edge were even worse. FF has its problems, yeah, but so far it works better than the other options I’ve tried.

Thanks for taking the time to help me.

[BronxWench]

I’ve poked around a bit, and I think it was linked to the previous crash. Firefox has been stable for us lately—there were builds a few years back that were gruesome with our archive code but they seem to have gotten past that. But when a browser crashes, I always recommend a full shutdown of the computer and a restart. I use Chrome, and while it’s very rare that it crashes, if I don’t do the full shutdown of my computer, everything is glitchy until I do so.

I’m so sorry this happened, but hopefully you’ll be able to post the edited chapter successfully once you’re done with the edits in Word.

[JayDee]

Firefox is pretty good for me with AFF, but I always try and type stuff into a doc before posting. Even reviews. The last long review I wrote I didn’t and lost it! Had to re-write it. Gotta be much worse with stories.

[Ghost-of-a-Chance]

13 hours ago, BronxWench said:

hopefully you’ll be able to post the edited chapter successfully once you’re done with the edits in Word.

BronxWench – yes, I was able to get the chapter reposted with edits done in Word. Thank you for your advice. I also restarted after the crash because my computer was running slower than our landlady during office hours. (Read “It was basically just sitting on its butt and getting paid for it.”)

It doesn’t surprise me that the chapter loss was probably related to the crash; I had a feeling it was. The situation happened because I had Spotify open, one of the cats decided he needed Mommy-time right now so hand it up, he plopped his tush right on the keyboard, and somehow he managed to click the touchpad on the obnoxious ad I’d muted. This opened a new tab in the browser, (already open) the tab froze, the other tabs froze and stopped responding, then the browser crashed completely. Chances are there was nothing malicious about the ad or site – my computer’s a ‘12 or ‘14, if I’m remembering correctly, and tends to not tolerate gifs and videos worth a lick, and my antivirus hasn’t made a peep. The page probably just had too many of those new-fangled moving talking pictures on it and ol’ lady Toshiba said “No witchcraft here.”

12 hours ago, JayDee said:

The last long review I wrote I didn’t and lost it! Had to re-write it. Gotta be much worse with stories.

Geez, JayDee, that stinks! Hate having to rewrite things entirely, and for it to be a long review? That had to be so frustrating! Honestly, I was lucky in this instance–I’m importing these chapters from another site and editing before posting, not typing them directly into the post box. Sure, I lost a lot of corrections, formatting, and scene expansions, but the chapter itself was already backed up. Since this, I’ve been doing edits in Word (like I should have all along, TBH) and posting them after backing them up. If I’d lost the chapter completely, as in without any backups? Yeah, I’d probably be a lot more upset. (like “Where’s my Scotch, I’m about to start cussing a blue streak” upset) As it is, a cup of tea and cuddling the cat was enough.

No, “Woozle” didn’t get in any trouble for sitting on the keyboard – he got a treat. It was my fault for being on the computer instead of spoiling him. I’m a good people-servant.

[BronxWench]

My work laptop, which has a touchscreen, has an extraordinary amount of hissies involving forgetting how to touchscreen, zooming and refusing to zoom back out, and deciding I’m inputting too fast for its miniscule memory to cope with, so I restart a lot. Of course, it doesn’t help that the OS is Windows Hate, and the browser is IE. I even have to use Outlook for my work emails. It’s the damned Dark Ages, otherwise known as being a government employee.

I forget how old my desktop is, but I tweak that mercilessly. It doesn’t dare misbehave, or I change out something inside. More power! More memory! Faster HD! ::cackles madly::