Do you know that a "posted message" disappears when the site is busy?

[UKgirl]

I don't know if the moderators or someone can do anything to stop this from happening in the future, but a very irritating thing happened to me yesterday.

I was helping someone with their request for help, and I was typing up a large quantity of information that covered 4 X census data plus 5 X marriage data plus 1 X christening data. It took some time to find all this information and to type it all up. Along the way, I sometimes checked the preview of what I had typed- no problems.

At last, when I had finished, I pressed the "post" button as usual, but I got some weird Rootschat message about access to the site being limited at that moment. I have never seen that message before.

Of course, I don't care about the "access" problem, but I DID CARE about my message for posting. I hoped that it would not vanish, and I waited until today to check whether in fact my message had actually appeared on the board, or not. But, it had completely vanished without trace. My entire effort of yesterday was wasted!!!

Helping someone else is the purpose of Rootschat, whilst also hoping to receive some help yourself along the way. If a message disappears after someone has made their huge effort to help- well what is the point in trying to help? If you are fearful that your typing will be to no avail, you may hesitate to type something up. Even now I am wondering whether the same thing may happen even to this message!

Well, today, I really wondered whether I should bother to once again type up all that stuff that I had typed yesterday.  I felt rather angry at my wasted time yesterday. But what about the poor person who had asked for help? I couldn't just ignore their cry for help. What had happened yesterday was certainly not their fault! So, I took a deep breath and began to type again. Luckily, I had actually printed out all the information, and so I had something to refer back to. However, many other people may just give up if this happens to them. Especially if it happens more than once!! It is just so very, very infuriating.

Is it not possible to at least protect a message which is in reply to someone's ask for help, even when the site is being used by too many people?

Is it not possible to protect a message after someone has pressed the "post" button?

Also, I am wondering "Am I the only person who knows about this problem?"

UKgirl

[Tati]

Also, I am wondering "Am I the only person who knows about this problem?"

You're not 
Happened to me several times.
Also I sometimes get error messages such as 'you have already posted this' (or something the like). A sheer lie, but it will delete your post anyway!

Well, my way of dealing with it is not to post too much info at once 

Tanja 

[MaryA]

Yes this has happened to me before, or that my post has been too large for one message.

If I have typed up a large amount of information, and I agree that there's a lot of work gone into it, I usually highlite and copy it before hitting the post button, that way it's saved and if you have any doubts about it being posted correctly you could always paste your typing into a word document and save that until you can check.

However, very often if that happens to me, I hit the back button and find that the post is still there in the window, so always worth trying.

Mary

[dennford]

I have a habit of composing my messages in my word prog' and then copy and pasting it into the post, that way at least I dont lose hard work.
                                                  Denn

[UKgirl]

As MaryA suggested, I also tried to hit the back button, but it took me completely off site!!

Speaking about the "back button"..............that reminds me of another problem

If I do a search using the button "search rootschat" which is at the top of the page, and if I am lucky, several items appear.

Then I look at the first item in the list. In order to then return to the list of items and look at the second item, I hit the back button.

Guess what?

The back button then always takes me off site, and I have to then restart my "rootschat search" all over again from the beginning!

This is also very irritating, but not as infuriating as losing a typed message.

Oh well, at least I am not the only one! Not that that makes it any less annoying-in fact it is worse to know that others are also "wasting" their time typing messages which disappear!

Anyway, thank you for commiserating with me.

I guess the key word is "patience", (plus unlimited time!!)

Ukgirl

[MaryA]

If I do a search using the button "search rootschat" which is at the top of the page, and if I am lucky, several items appear.

Then I look at the first item in the list. In order to then return to the list of items and look at the second item, I hit the back button.

Guess what?

The back button then always takes me off site, and I have to then restart my "rootschat search" all over again from the beginning!

A techie person might explain it differently, but in terms that I can understand it, this is because you have generated a kind of database list, it's not a proper page on the internet so in hitting the back button you've lost the criteria you put in and also what was found.

The way to avoid that is just by opening the link you want to look at in another window rather than using the same one, that way you keep your list - no problem.

Mary

[MaryA]

I also tried to hit the back button, but it took me completely off site!!

The back button should only take you to the one previous page you were browsing before.

If hitting the back button takes you "completely off site" to a site you have visited earlier than Rootschat then you must have hit the button more than once.

Mary

[Berlin-Bob]

Hi UKgirl,

No, you are not the only one, I guess we have all experienced this at some time(s) or other 

However, as Dennford says, if it's a longer posting, then write it in an editor or word processor first, then transfer it to RootsChat.  I find this is also a good idea for postings where I want to think about, and maybe change the wording a bit, before "publishing".

And for shorter postings, as MaryA says, highlight your reply and press <ctrl> and <C>.  Then if it goes wrong, you can copy it back for a re-try with <ctrl> + <V>

Your second point:

The back button then always takes me off site, and I have to then restart my "rootschat search" all over again from the beginning!

Here's a tip that I found useful:
when you have your list of search results, press shift before clicking on any link you want to look at.
This opens a new window for reading the topic, but keeps your search list intact, so you can look at other topics, without having to start the search again. It also means that you can switch from one window to another to compare topics.

I found it takes time to remember to press shift each time, but it's well worth remembering !!

Good luck,
Bob

[Berlin-Bob]

A techie person might explain it differently, ...

This techie person would describe it exactly so !!