Tech: Random going missing?

Subject: Tech: Random going missing?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 Mar 18 - 06:58 AM

Twice in the last two days I've noticed that random posts in threads I've read have gone missing. Not the kind of posts that might merit the attention of the most susceptible moderator, or even the kind that were particularly significant (though one missing post in response to something I had written made nonsense of the reply to it I posted, which was left like an orphan).

But I'm wondering why this should happen, and if this is happening in other cases. Do we have mice?

Subject: RE: Tech: Random going missing?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Mar 18 - 08:18 AM

Most of us who have been posting at Mudcat have some version of the following:

Write the post in the text box then select it all and do Control+C (to copy). Hit the "Preview" radio button and then submit. If it fails to appear as the preview or otherwise disappears, go back to the thread and the blank form and paste in your post. I usually don't use the preview button again if the first attempt disappeared, because there is something about that extra step that *sometimes* fries posts.

Is this what you're talking about, that you usually never have to do anything like this because you haven't lost messages before? Or are you detecting a new gremlin in the system?

That said, I noticed you translated a bit of Russian spam. Both the spam and the translation are now gone. Those will always go missing as soon as we spot them.

Subject: RE: Tech: Random going missing?
From: Jeri
Date: 30 Mar 18 - 09:42 AM

Automatic deletes:
Spam
Blank posts
Personal attacks

I looked at what you posted this month, and you haven't replied to any invisible posts that I can see. I haven't noticed many deletions at all. Possibly/probably, what Acme said, but also, you might have thought you replied in one thread, but it was actually a different one. (Something I do, occasionally.)

Subject: RE: Tech: Random going missing?
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Mar 18 - 06:22 PM

I lost a LONG post last week because Mudcat went down while I was typing. I failed to compose it in a word processor or to do as Acme suggests above. Once Mudcat failed to respond, my post simply was not there when I tried to 'go back'.

Something like this has been an intermittent problem for years. If Mudcat is not down...and... your post doesn't 'take', my solution has always been to **reloead** Mudcat in the browser... NOT simply 'refresh' at the top of the page. This gets a current memory in your cache. I'm not sure of all the technical explanations... it just seems to work. (I have NO idea if this is relevant on smart phones.)
   My life has kept me from posting almost every day as I once did, so I forgot my own rule about composing in some other program, then C&P into Mudcat. I think I have 4-5 programs in which to compose.... I just need a reminder to use them.

Subject: RE: Tech: Random going missing?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 Mar 18 - 07:44 PM

Not so Jeri - in a thread about immigration authorities at 10.41 28 March I posted a response to a post that vanished shortly after I posted that response. I commented on that in my next post, when I explained why I'd come out with a comment that bore no relationship to any visible post.

No I'm not talking about what happens when you think you've posted something , and don't check it’s gone through, and then later can't see it because it didn't go through. I've learned to check on that at the time. (Sometimes it can be quite a wrestling match trying to get a post to take.) This is a different matter. I'm asking about the case where a post that has appeared in a thread vanishes, setting aside the situation where for good reason a moderator might have seen it is necessary to step in and remove it.

I don't know if that is something that happens a lot. I haven't seen it before in years visiting the Cat, but two times in two posts in separate threads, one above the line and one below in a couple of days, suggests it wasn't a one-off glitch. As I said, do we have mice?

Subject: RE: Tech: Random going missing?
From: Jeri
Date: 30 Mar 18 - 08:35 PM

Looks like Joe undeleted the post you were replying to. I can't, for the life of me, figure out why it would have been deleted in the first place (accident, maybe), but it's there now.

Subject: RE: Tech: Random going missing?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 Mar 18 - 09:14 PM

It is too, I've just checked. Joe must be reading this thread. Agreed, it's not a post that could ever deserve censoring. Obviously. Some kind of accident, human or something to do with internet magic. But I wonder how often it happens?

Could be tricky if some apology, for example, went missing like that, and it led to an enduring quarrel based on the misunderstanding...

Subject: RE: Tech: Random going missing?
From: DaveRo
Date: 31 Mar 18 - 01:35 AM

Bill D wrote: I lost a LONG post last week because Mudcat went down while I was typing.

If you use Firefox or Chrome, my Mudcat Browser Tools addon would have saved it.

Now that Mudcat is using TLS you may find you trick of reloading from the cache won't work. The browser may treat 'secure' content more, er, securely.

Subject: RE: Tech: Random going missing?
From: DaveRo
Date: 31 Mar 18 - 02:55 AM

Bill D: I remembered that you were a Pale Moon user.

I just tried my addon in Basilisk and it mostly works. You have to save the (unchanged) preferences once for text recovery to work for some reason. The css changes - e.g. reorder columns - don't work; presumably that API is unimplemented yet.

If you try it, please PM me with what else you find.

Subject: RE: Tech: Random going missing?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 Mar 18 - 09:52 PM

Best thing to do with a long post you care about is to write it in a word processing program, and then copy it across. Mind, I hardly ever make the effort, and have regretted that sometimes. But if the Cat freezes when I try to post, I've sometimes been able to save a post, and use it later when things are sorted out.

It's always a good idea when writing a post in reply to another to make a clear identification of who you are replying to. When a post gets delayed that’s especially true. But in every case there's the chance that someone else will nip in before you, and it looks as if your reply is directed to them - that of course is a particular worry if you're the kind of person who is prone to dash off insulting comments - "You're lying through your teeth, you creep". But then in that case you deserve to get embarrassed when you find you've insulted some harmless bod who posted just in time to get the screamer you intended to go to someone else.

Subject: RE: Tech: Random going missing?
From: Mr Red
Date: 01 Apr 18 - 01:42 AM

definitely lost some of mine. When I know all should have gone smoothly.

Mind you if, like me, you use a BT/Fon (notso) HotSpot it pays to regularly copy the text before posting. And regularly I forget!

And it took a long time to realise my attempts at FTP to a new site was being thwarted by the host's maintenance (or somesuch). Compound that with BT and the 'Cat has to be maintained - it's a jungle out there!