I was wondering how others have handled the tragedy of a lost post. It has happened to me several times, but the last one was down right karmic cruelty.

Ever turned a good phrase, authored a really good position statement, or something that at least you yourself considered very well said? Sure you have. But have you ever written some analysis of a situation or responded to someone else post with what appears to be a 'home run' of a response. I mean, you look at your work, re-read it, and think - 'Wow, good one'. _javascript:icon('')

I had been crafting a response to a post, you know, responding to a thread of particular interest to me... , suddenly in sheer defiance of all my brain cells, and completely contrary to my desires, I move my mouse to the upper right hand corner of the screen and presto! Closed the browser and lost my masterpiece!

After the wailing, rending of clothes, and gnashing of teeth, I pulled myself out from under my desk, dusted off the crumbs of a thousand snacks, and tried to 're-compose' it - but the words were no longer there. I couldn't get that 'spark' back.

I suppose it's like the non-sexual version of 'coitus interuptus'. But I figured, with this community, this must happen all the time. Do you guys have a phrase for describing this, outside of the usual self-deprecatory?

I figure if I share my pain. there be a little less for me to endure.

ohhh that has happened to me so many freaking times I want to blow my own head off with a naval gun!

The remedy of course is to use a wordprocessing program to write down your linguistic gold and to spell check it at the same time. Usually they have an auto save feature that is really cool for those times that you loose the page and want to do some damage to something squishy.

I get so freaking frustrated when I loose my work. (often I use a laptop that has the weak little mousy pad thingy in the middle that makes me loose what I am doing if I don't turn the little bastard off.) Then I want to scream explitives at nuns.

I feel your pain and I know the frustration.

(oh btw don't scream explitives at nuns, for some reason they don't appreciate it)

Good tip! I'll make a note of that.

What, you mean like writing out a post that you beleive is something that really contributes to a thread, and your really impressed with what you have written only to find you accidentily typed in in "Create new Thread" instead of "Post reply" only to have to press the back button and lose all of what you wrote.
Yeah i've done that more than once and each time I wanna rip my hair out and put forks in my eyes.

It's frustrating for sure.

There is a VERY simple way of avoiding it. (I only figured it out after it happened to me:cryb
When you have finished typing your post press:
ctrl a
ctrl c
and if it is a good post open editor (or your favorite wordprocessor)and press
ctrl v
save it (editor file)
and then post your reply/new thread.
If it goes wrong then just reclick on reply and press
ctrl v

If the computer crashes then it's still saved in your editor.
BTW:
ctrl a => select all
ctrl c => copy
ctrl v => paste

Commisorations to the lost post. There is nothing worse than an artist losing a masterpiece!

Samuel
p.s. ctrl a, ctrl c, click Post Reply

edit to add: shouldn't this be in the rantforum instead of the jokes forum??

[edit on 17-5-2008 by Aldolas]
edit to add: be sure not to accidently press the wrong keys, if you press x or c instead of v then you have successfully deleted your post so is you're not sure, rightclick your mouse instead in the window!

[edit on 17-5-2008 by Aldolas]