I'm using the quick reply function, and firefox, so it's possible that other forms or other browsers behave differently.
There seems to have been a technical problem. Please click the back button, refresh your browser, and try again. is not what you want to see after you have written walls of text.
Especially since contrary to what the message seems to suggest, pressing the back button will not fill out the quick reply field with your post text, but forgets it making you type it again.
Forms that handle timeouts well are far superior to forms that forget your content on timeout.
Most engines where user contribution is important (forums/wikis/this github stuff) implement a solution for this.
phpBB for example forwards you to the post reply form repopulating the form fields with your previously submitted content, and displays a message that the form has been timed out and you should resubmit it.
This is something I would very much like to see in this site engine. Although it is not visible for the regular user at first, losing that very detailed post that took a lot of time to create is quite an experience.
But keep in mind that timeouts prevent a range of CSRF attacks, so an "automatic" solution where the forum somehow accepts the content anyway could be vulnerable.
I'm using the quick reply function, and firefox, so it's possible that other forms or other browsers behave differently.
There seems to have been a technical problem. Please click the back button, refresh your browser, and try again.is not what you want to see after you have written walls of text.Especially since contrary to what the message seems to suggest, pressing the back button will not fill out the quick reply field with your post text, but forgets it making you type it again.
Forms that handle timeouts well are far superior to forms that forget your content on timeout.
Most engines where user contribution is important (forums/wikis/this github stuff) implement a solution for this.
phpBB for example forwards you to the post reply form repopulating the form fields with your previously submitted content, and displays a message that the form has been timed out and you should resubmit it.
This is something I would very much like to see in this site engine. Although it is not visible for the regular user at first, losing that very detailed post that took a lot of time to create is quite an experience.
But keep in mind that timeouts prevent a range of CSRF attacks, so an "automatic" solution where the forum somehow accepts the content anyway could be vulnerable.