Argggghhhhh!

Caitlin_Bree

I spent about half an hour composing a thread while logged in. When I pressed submit, it brought up the log in page and made me log in again.
I did this and pressed submit, it told me I couldn't submit it as I had logged in on another page since logging in, and to go back to the previous page and press reload.

I did and it told me the same thing about being previously logged in since I'd logged in. I hit back again and my new thread had totally disappeared. I'd made a point of copying all of the text as this seems to happen frequently but when I tried to copy it to a new thread, the paste option had disappeared along with all of my text.

I didn't log out at all, or log in on any other page... just logged in when it prompted me to as it wouldn't proceed with my thread without me doing so... and then refused to proceed anyway, before eating my post.
This is driving me nuts.

Former_MSE_Ian

Hi Caitlin,

Caitlin_Bree wrote: »

I spent about half an hour composing a thread while logged in. When I pressed submit, it brought up the log in page and made me log in again.

The site will log you out if it believes you are not doing anything. This can be a good thing. For example, if you were to walk away from your computer but leave it logged in to your forum account? You might not want someone to find your computer logged in and use it to post under your name.

But it does also mean that if you have typed a post which has taken a long time it is worth copying the text of your post to your computer's "clipboard" in memory. Just in case. Before you submit.

Using Windows you can do this by pressing the CTRL and A keys simultaneously to highlight the text. Then CTRL and C to copy it. CTRL and V is paste and if something were to happen you could use paste to get your text back. You will also find this will work on most sites.

Ian

Wywth

Caitlin_Bree wrote: »

I spent about half an hour composing a thread while logged in. When I pressed submit, it brought up the log in page and made me log in again.
I did this and pressed submit, it told me I couldn't submit it as I had logged in on another page since logging in, and to go back to the previous page and press reload.

I did and it told me the same thing about being previously logged in since I'd logged in. I hit back again and my new thread had totally disappeared. I'd made a point of copying all of the text as this seems to happen frequently but when I tried to copy it to a new thread, the paste option had disappeared along with all of my text.

I didn't log out at all, or log in on any other page... just logged in when it prompted me to as it wouldn't proceed with my thread without me doing so... and then refused to proceed anyway, before eating my post.
This is driving me nuts.

I found I often got logged out.
Then I discovered if you tick the 'keep me logged in' box when logging in, this prevents what was a frequent and annoying issue.

Don't worry, when you actively log out it logs you out and clears the cookies (but is a security risk if you log in using a shared computer e.g. at an internet cafe, and forget to log out ... or get cut off internet access because your allowed time is up)

Caitlin_Bree

Ian, If I walked away from my computer and found someone had posted using my sign-in session, I'd be more concerned (..or intrigued ) by the stranger in my house...
As I said, I did copy to the clipboard. Logging in when prompted or "backing and reloading" removed the option to paste though. :doh:

Wywth (I'd love to know how you say that), do you mean the "remember me" checkbox under the forum downtime banner that's currently up?

I thought I'd done that on past occasions and still been logged out, but maybe my memory's playing tricks on me. Will see if it works next time I epic post. (epic in the literal sense)

Thanks for your inputs :cheesy:

Wywth

Caitlin_Bree wrote: »

...Wywth (I'd love to know how you say that), do you mean the "remember me" checkbox under the forum downtime banner that's currently up?

I thought I'd done that on past occasions and still been logged out, but maybe my memory's playing tricks on me. Will see if it works next time I epic post. (epic in the literal sense)

Thanks for your inputs :cheesy:

Yeah, thats the one I meant
Sorry if I caused any confusion, different sites call it different things, but I only seem to need to use it on this site

Former_MSE_Forum_Manager

Just noticed this via lifehacker.com - it's a chrome extension:

"Lazarus

Lazarus is a lifesaver for anyone who fills out a lot of forms online, or who writes in their browser. When you're typing in a form, Lazarus saves what you're doing. If your browser crashes, Lazarus saves a backup. It's simple, but it can seriously rescue your day."

Not used it yet myself, but might be worth testing as an alternative to remembering to copy to clipboard.

HeadAboveWater

I've also found I've got logged out a few times if spending too long on a post, box ticked or not. Generally what I try to remember to do, is hit 'preview post' every so often. It's almost like a refresh on the page, but it helps keep me logged in!

fermi

For whatever reason, using the back button in Firefox often resurrects the post content without and extra browser addon.

Or to stay logged in and active while writing posts you can open in a separate tab:

- Open Contacts Popup

or

- Currently Active Users

pages.

Those two pages auto-refresh every few minutes, so while open in another tab your session will never time out and log you out.