1. In the middle period of Mudcat, before PREVIEW, there was CLEAR ENTRY. You could compose away and then poof! Your post would vanish and leave the compose window blank, and I think it would close the thread window too. It was right next to SUBMIT, and thus one's choice was always graphically clear! :~)

2. Re: Worries about losing posts-- You can compose, hit CTRL-A and then CTRL-C and then hit PREVIEW. What CTRL-A does is select all the copy in the box your cursor is in-- the compose box. What the CTRL-C does is, it puts a copy of your composed post on your clipboard. If the message is going south, you can CTRL-V it back into place (insert it, AKA "PASTE").

As things are getting maybe-lost I sometimes paste them into an email draft message cuz they save real easy there. Then I can fetch it out if I need to. That's also a good place to put stuff you COULD have posted but didn't (good old restraint), to see it later and see if it's still killingly on-point. Or you can put things there you think you might want to use elsewhere, like on a site of your own, or in a book manuscript.

~Susan