I usually know what it is that causes the post to vanish. I have little to no control over some of the things that I have done to cause the crash. Other actions, like those you mentioned, I try to remember not to do.

Goodgotd, your instructions on how to recover a post are a great find for me. Thank you for the tips. I am sure that I will get a chance to try them out.

I can say that the main factors for me losing posts have been connection breaks while typing, using a browser nav key (backspace while not in the entry box- stopping and using the forward button usually works- but only if you catch it right away), going over the hour timeout- and having my posts hidden when a new page is created.

the last can be revealed if you make a new post- one character is enough [usually ! for me], the first only by using a text editor (*never* Notepad, I install MetaPad 3.51 immediately and nuke the stupid m$ tinkertoy) and copy-paste.

I use multiple tabs all the time withiut trouble, even multiple pages to the site, plus a book or 2 and my picture hosting site- no idea why you have problems unless something in your browser is set different than mine. but then 99.9% of the time using a 1990 p-IIIm laptop with 192 megs of ram and win2000 sp4 over a usb wired NIC to get to my home LAN's router. so it could be os related.

with wordwrap on in MetaPad, I get little difference between copied and entered post, and when you paste it is when the timer starts so there's time for corrections. even the bbPress formatting works as transferred.

auto-login isn't consistent, but allowing cookies for the site seems to keep me logged in for a fair while. sorry you're having problems, but like the guy who had the firefox lockup, I can't seem to repeat your troubles.

SpiritWolf

I can sympathize with you completely. Some of the things that I have done to cause my entire post to disappear have been scrolling to another part of the page, checking for something on another open tab then coming back, pressing more than key on the keyboard at the same time, pressing a key on the keyboard outside of the 26 letters of the alphabet or numerals 0 through 9, or just taking a while to proof read my post. I am sure that I am leaving out one or more incidents have led to the entire post disappearing. It is frustrating - it is very frustrating.

On several occasions in the past, I have mentioned the fact that my post has just disappeared and that I am furious because of it. I do not think that my statement has gotten me any sympathy a single time. So SpiritWolf, let me extend that courtesy to you. I am very sorry that you have had trouble getting this stupid forum to remember what you wrote and the hard work that you put into it. Further, I understand completely your frustration. You have every right to be frustrated and do not let anyone tell you differently. I say this with sincerity because I have been in your place a number of times before and I do not want to accept that crap.

Sometimes I remember to take the advice that was given to me each time that I have experienced the indignity of the forum software flatly refusing to accept my post and deleteing my hard work. The advice has been to 1st write my post using a text editor such as Notepad and then copying and pasting my post into the text box of the GOTD forum. When I have remember to do that I have had a little less frustration. The process may not be frustration free because I find that copying and pasting text from Notepad into the GOTD box........... what I paste is not necessarily what I copied. Formatting and sentence structure may suffer using this process.

There is no justice for you or I.

Bigun

I had written more in my original post, but after losing everything when I had to backspace (and because the site cannot remember the post I was working on and made me start over), I am too frustrated to post the rest of what I had written (and some of it I forgot)

this I think I can address- if the focus gets placed outside the post entry box, backspace is 'go back one page', returning to a blank post. In most cases had you stopped and clicked the 'forward' icon all would be back.

as far as remember me logins, as far as I can tell if I don't logout it remembers me for days. who needs a checkbox?

weird, I wrote a fairly long post here, clicked to send it, and got the error message 'slowdown you move too fast". When I backspaced, all the post I had written was gone and I have to start all over! This frustrates me and I almost decided it wasn't worth the bother to have to rewrite everything. Why can't the site remember the post you were working on when you have to backspace? Most sites don't make you start all over in writing a post if you have to backspace for some reason!

This site should have a "remember me" automatic login option like most forums do. I often don't participate on the forum simply because of the time and trouble it takes to wade through hundreds of documents to find registration and login info for this forum. I am registered in many forums and sites and there's no way I can remember info for hundreds of various sites.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who wants to be able to have the site remember them.

Please, let this site have the option of automatic login like other sites do.

I had written more in my original post, but after losing everything when I had to backspace (and because the site cannot remember the post I was working on and made me start over), I am too frustrated to post the rest of what I had written (and some of it I forgot). Most sites don't make you start a post over if you have to backspace, and how I could have gotten "slow down, you move too fast" after I'd spent at least 10 minutes composing my first post, is a mystery to me. If 10 minutes is too fast, what is slow enough?