my reply was deleted

I just spent about a half hour typing out a reply and hit reply only to find out that I had been logged off and my whole reply was deleted. What's up with that? If I am using the site, I expect to remain logged in. Please explain what happened.

After some time of inactivity the server kills the connection. As typing a long reply does not generate any server-client traffic the server does not know that you are actually doing something.
For long posts, type Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, and only post then. If the connection is down you can login again, go back to the thread and just do a Ctrl-V.
or (I think)
just use the Preview Post button every 5 to 10 minutes. I don't know what the timeout period is.

[Squatchit]

It's frustrating when you've spent a while typing a thoughtful reply only to have it go *poof*, isn't it?

Rin explained what happened.

If you check the 'remember me' box when logging in, I think that works too. That will certainly stop you being thrown out after a period of inactivity (so if you wander off to make a cuppa and the doorbell goes etc., etc., when you return, you should still be logged in). However, if you are typing a long post, it's always best to type it elsewhere (Notepad, Wordpad, Word) in case the site crashes. Then simply copy/paste in when you're done.

[Honza]

If I type an answer that I don't want to lose I always copy it before I submit the reply. That way if anything goes wrong I have it saved. Its happened to me too many times before for me not to be careful.

Thanks for your responses. I should remember this by now. I have had this happen on other forums, but I start a reply and don't think about how long it is taking me. Most times they are short and sweet. Sometimes I get a little carried away.

[Reverend Keith]

I've sometimes been able to save myself in that situation by using the browser "back" button to get back to the edit screen (after logging back in) There I can usually just hit the post button successfully or at least cut and paste.

Also, when this happens, it prompts you to log in and puts a log in field in the center of the screen, if you use that one and not the one in the upper right corner, you won't lose your message.

Sounds like we've all had this happen enough times to learn to copy our stuff, lol!
Maybe the universe is telling us all to be "short, sweet & to the point" and stop rambling, lol! (not like that will stop us....)

Originally Posted by gpGeminiMN

I just spent about a half hour typing out a reply and hit reply only to find out that I had been logged off and my whole reply was deleted. What's up with that? If I am using the site, I expect to remain logged in. Please explain what happened.

Yup, I learned that the hard way, so now hit I cntr+c before 'submit reply', just in case it does log me out :)

MM

Yeah sometimes I copy my reply or post just it in case it doesn't go through, which happens to me alot of other forums I find.