Let's get to the bottom of this "losing our posts" problem

JoanJ,

Ctl-N will give you a new window in IE. Shortcut keys are very handy if you know about them but can cause havoc if you are not aware of their behaviors.

I hope I am not to late as I am just seeing this.
When I make a post on a thread, If i scroll up to get more info, my post will dissapear. So what I do now is copy the post, when I scroll back down I paste that post i copied as not to start all over again.

I've never lost my reply by scrolling but if I click on a picture and then come back then my reply is gone. So now I right click on the photo and open in a new tab or new window.

Dave, I have often found that postings disappear. I often play the word games in the Games forum and some words just won't get added. I never stay watching these threads and when a posting fails to go through it has the

message, whereas a successful post gets
An example that just happened was in this thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/750728/#new
I wanted to add the word "starch". It was not added. When this happens it doesn't matter how often I try, it still won't add it.
I have found a way round it though. If I put a space in front of the word, ie my post says " starch", the message goes through successfully. I did this and my post is in the thread, but the leading space I added disappears.
This has happened several times with a variety of different words, but I have no clue as to what makes those words unacceptable!

This might be a clue to what happens to other missing postings.
Ken

PS I also tried to add the word "marred" to this thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/681028/
and got the same response with the word not added.
I then tried " marred" and it was accepted.

This message was edited Oct 11, 2007 6:18 PM

This message was edited Oct 11, 2007 6:19 PM

Did someone else maybe make a post that already had that word? I think there's something in place that's supposed to prevent making duplicate posts--if you try to submit the exact same thing twice it just won't go through. That would explain why adding a space in front of it makes it work. If the system thinks a word is offensive/unacceptable in some way, it still lets you make the post but when you preview it warns you to check your language and make sure you're not saying anything bad.

You are absolutely right. I checked both threads, which are both quite long. I found that not just somebody, but I myself that had in both cases posted the same word much earlier in the thread! Mea culpa!

I think that's the key - if you already posted the same word or phrase (verbatim) in a thread, the system won't let you post a duplicate. (If someone else has posted it, the system shouldn't stop you from making the same post.)

Well that makes perfect sense, but now why do we occasionally get completely duplicate posts in threads other than the games thread? Does that "duplication prevention" only work in games? Just curious, this is NOT a problem, as it only happens occasionally, and you guys have plenty to worry about, I am just curious.

I managed to lose a post this morning. I typed it in and used the spell check on my google bar. When I clicked to turn off spell check the screen jumped and I landed up in a different forum! I have done this hundreds of times but only twice has it jumped and lost my posting. hitting the back button did not retrieve it and I didn't have time to re enter my post.

But it convinced me that the tool bar was somehow the culprit. and more specifically the spell check feature. I don't have the spell check or google bar here at work so I'll have to experiment with it when I get home.

I am just curious if anyone else is using spell check when their posts vanish?

I know I've been guilty of duplicate posts on occasion, but it's always been when I accidentally clicked send twice and the system put it through twice. I think when that happens, the two posts go in so close to each other time-wise that it doesn't have time to realize that there's already one there.

Aha....makes sense Liz - thanks.

Sorry Zany, I only use spell - check in non-conversational items like articles or otherstuff, and then I use the one in Word. Rarely use the google one....folks jest godda putt up wif my badd spellun.

I do use Google spell check, but am not using it when any of the errors I described above occur. Also, I'm pretty sure (although not entirely certain) that I had these problems prior to the installation of the Google toolbar - although now that I think about it, I suppose it's not impossible that installation of the Google toolbar could have been the browser change to which I referred.

The latest Mozilla firefox browser has the spellcheck already in it. For instance, right now, as I'm typing, firefox and spellcheck are underlined in red. No toolbar is needed.

I had a post post itself twice before. Don't remember which forum I was in and I didn't hit enter twice. It was just there twice.

I will admit I am too lazy to use spell check.

For those who have been having actual poof posts...
I haven't lost a post in a thread or in d-mail since last week and I've not been doing anything differently. Anyone else out there notice that they haven't been losing posts for a bit?

Good news Lauren!
The new Firefox has spell check! It's great!

debnes

Oh nooooooooo, I liked being lazy and sloppy with spelling. I haven't noticed this when typing though. Maybe I don't have the most recent version?

Mrs E, Your misspelled word will be underlined in red. And you should have the most recent if you installed it when I gave you the link for it.

Oh, then I must be an xcellent spellr. It's not doing it for me. I installed it when you sent it to me.

I had to enable mine to check the spelling.

Up at the top, you goto

Tools-Options-Advanced-General

There you should find a box that you can check mark so it will check your spelling as you type.

Did I confuse you?? It is 2:30am here.. ;)

hth

Darin

Ummm, (ducking for cover) it would have helped if I had been in Firefox when I made that comment and not in IE7. I did go and enable it in Firefox. Found right where it was based on your directions.

Comment- it's been over a week now and no poof posts. Are any of the other people who were having actual poof posts (not user error type disappearing posts) still losing posts?

I just poofed a reply on the soil forum and actually know what I did that caused it (I think)

After entering a rather lengthy post I clicked on preview and noticed some errors. I placed my curser on the preview area and tried to edit there rather than in the edit box. POOF the whole thing went into cyberspace and is gone forever.

Boo hoo, I'll have to retype my post and YEA! I actually know for sure it was something I did to cause it and I am certain I have done before even though I didn't realize it at the time.

Just to be certain I copied this post and did it again with the same poof result.

I just need to make certain I am trying to edit in the correct area from now on!

I do that all the time (accidentally trying to type in the preview box) and nothing has ever disappeared on me. I tried it again just now and nothing happened either. So it's not just trying to type in the preview box, there's still something funny happening on top of that.

So far... crossing fingers and toes... I am poof-post free for almost two weeks and I am not doing anything differently than what I've ever done other than that I stopped cutting and pasting from word docs then into a post and am posting direct into threads again now.

I just tried it again and I see I explained it wrong. When you try to edit in the preview area it highlights the word you want to correct. Once a word is highlighted I usually just hit the back space to erase it and then retype it correctly. But if you hit the backspace after highlighting in the preview your post goes poof.

Folks, when this happens try to Undo by pressing and holding the Ctrl key and tap the letter Z once. It should undo your previous keyboard command.

Ctrl+z

HTH

Zanymuse--I understand what's happening to you now. It really has nothing to do with the preview box. When you hit the backspace key, your browser is taking you back to the last page you were on. And unfortunately, when you've gone forward from the screen where you were typing your post and then you try to go back, most of the time it doesn't remember your post (and the undo/redo thing won't work since you're not on the same page anymore). This is what was happening to all the people who talked about typing their post, then going and enlarging a thumbnail picture, and then when they came back their post was gone. This is related to your browser not DG so I don't think there's anything Dave can do about it. But this isn't the same problem as the people who have their posts disappear while they're in the middle of typing.

Thanks ecrane3, I know that even Dave in all his superpowers can't fix what I mess up but I wanted others to know that this may be happening to them as well when they accidentally try to edit in the preview mode causing it to appear to be poofing while they were typing.


MaryMcP, I tried the control and tap Z but it didn't do anything? Then I tried the back arrow on my browser and it brought me back to the same place but hitting control Z reposted the entry I had copied last night instead of this one which I copied before previewing and duplicating the poof. Does that make any sense?

I usually just copy whatever I type in the reply box, BEFORE I go to any other DG screen, cause usually, when I hit the back arrow, whatever I typed does disappear. This way, I just paste what I copied before I left that screen....

And, yes, it IS a pain that going "back" to a previous screen erases your text....

For me, I've learned it's safer to open another tab if I want to check something in a previous post or photo. Been doing that a long time after losing my messages. I'm slow but I do learn. lol

What's weird, though, is Firefox usually will still have your post in the box if you navigate away from the page and come back to it later. You use Firefox, don't you, Zany? I just tried what you described above, and when I came back to this page after highlighting a word in preview and hitting backspace, this text was still here.

I was using IE ;-P

That should teach me to use the fox...but it probablly won't..

My whole posting in the lily forum went 'poof' this afternoon, when my brother's kitten,( I'm taking care off), decided he wanted to help me typing...
Unfortunately I cannot recall what combination of keys he used!

And cats aren't renowned for giving up their secrets, either.

Recently I lost two posts, but this time remember exactly what caused it;

The first time was while typing, I accidentally touched the left Ctrl and Shift key simultaneously with the side my pink finger.

The second time was entirely different; I was in the preview-textbox, activated part of the text and hit the delete key. Instead of deleting that part, I got thrown back to DG Homepage.

Hope this is helpful..

Something stopped the poof posts. My last ones were back in October. Any posts I lose now are my own fault and I am capable of figuring out what I did to cause the loss. Those other ones I was losing were not my fault and were true poof posts. No plausible explanation for why they disappeared from my end. Seems as if the poof posts stopped for everyone back in October so some little angel out there did something.