Being logged out while writing messages to be posted to this board
  • Bruce E. Ford
    Posts: 431
    Several times when I have spent the better part of an hour writing a comment for posting to this board, and I then attempt to post it, the system has rejected the posting, displaying an error message that tells me I have not logged in.

    In every case I have logged in before beginning to write. The system, apparently, has logged me off because I have not moved away from a particular screen for more than a stated period.

    Needless to say, I have been frustrated.
  • Paul F. Ford
    Posts: 864
    That has happened to me too, on Firefox. Safari seems to present no problems.
  • Bruce E. Ford
    Posts: 431
    It just happened to me again; but this time, before I attempted to post my comment, I "copied" it to the "clipboard." I was, therefore, able to log in again and "paste" what I had written. This should not be necessary, but it will cause me no further frustration, now that I have a strategy for handling the problem.

    Paul-- I use only Internet Explorer. I haven't tried other browsers.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,850
    I learned early on to always write my posts in a word processor, then cut and paste them into the posting window. I believe the server is timing out the users in ten to fifteen minutes and if you are writing a post during that time out, you will loose everything. Another way around it is to copy what you wrote to your clipboard BEFORE you click the button to POST. If it times out, the content will be on your hard drive clipboard. (But be careful, because that is volatile RAM memory where all your thoughts reside until you save them in an application.)
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    Bruce,

    You might try this:

    just before you hit "submit" on any webpage, after you have typed out a lot, hit CONTROL + A (apple + a on Mac), which selects ALL, then hit CONTROL + C, so that it is copied to your clipboard. If anything bad happens, you still have all your text: you can hit CONTROL + V and paste it again.

    If you like this trick, I have another you might like, too.

    (Firefox rules, by the way!)
  • mjballoumjballou
    Posts: 994
    I'm with Francis on this because I too lost some wonderful and world-changing thoughts. (And this has also happened to me with Typepad for my blog - the system burps and my words disappear.)

    I don't do this all the time. The fear of being logged out makes me write faster - and get back to work.
  • priorstf
    Posts: 460
    Computers are amazingly like people sometimes. Imagine this group of ours standing around in conversation. Bubba listens for a while, then says "I'd like to say something." We all turn to look while Bubba goes about thinking just how he'd like to put it. Eventually, sad to say, our attention span is exceeded. By the time Bubba is ready, we've all disconnected and gone our separate ways.

    It takes a fair amount of computer time just to keep up a connection whether the user is active or idle. When you're writing your comments the computer sees you as "idle" and eventually times out your connection. It's sometimes a pain, but it's not a sign of anything broken nor even, would I suspect, a humorous prank by our fearless leaders.

    So go with Francis and Mary Jane on this one. Let's not lose any of those wonderful and world-changing thoughts!
  • Bruce E. Ford
    Posts: 431
    "Please post and intelligent and CIVIL comment."
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