#1: Norma Dee (norm0908) on Feb 1, 2022

Would it be possible to fix the comment box so comments don't disappear? Sometimes while making a comment I will think of something I want to check out and in doing so leave the comment box. Then when I return to finish my comment the comment is gone.

That has never happened to me. Are you commenting on mobile or desktop? In fact, it would be good for Valerie to know both your operating system and browser in order to track down that bug.

Hm. That has never happened to me either, and it sounds really maddening!

Norma, what browser are you using? Are you on a desktop computer running Windows 10 or something else?

Still thinking about this. There are a few possibilities.

This one is unlikely to be the problem, but: If you are working on another puzzle and you click on the button to pop up a window with the new puzzle's comments, the website will re-use the same window where it was showing the comment thread for the old puzzle, erasing where it was showing the old puzzle's comments and instead showing the new puzzle's comments there. So in that case you would lose what you were typing. But from the way you described it, Norma, it doesn't sound like that is what is happening.

Another thought: Sometimes Windows will do an update without asking my permission, and sometimes after that all my browser windows reappear in the same places and with the same content. But any text that you were typing would not still be there. So I wonder if it could be that?

Anyway, I am trying to reproduce the problem in my browser. I've had an un-posted comment sitting there for half an hour now and it is still there. I'll leave it up for several hours to see what happens.

Anyway, Norma, when you get a chance, your answers to the questions in #3 would be helpful toward figuring this out.

An update: Just under six hours later, my un-posted comment is still sitting there, un-posted. I solved a puzzle in another window, read its comments, and the original window stayed there -- so it looks to me like the code is actually *not* updating a single comment window with whichever discussion that I am looking at.

Norma, any other clues about when unfinished comments disappear would be helpful toward figuring out what your computer is doing.

An update: I left my un-posted comment sitting in a browser window for a little more than 24 hours and it stayed there, so, Norma, clearly your computer is doing something different from what my computer is doing. More info would be helpful!

My system is old and I am still using Windows 7. Having turned 90 years old recently the likelyhood of my upgrading is very remote. I use Google Chrome.

What I post doen't disappear due to inactivity. It disappears when I leave in the middle of a comment and then come back to finish the comment. I may be in the middle of a comment and want to check on something so leave to look it up. Then when I return to the comment box to continue, my unfinished comment will disappear. It is still there for a blink of an eye then pops off the ssreen. Poof. Gone. If I remember to save the comment (using Post) before I leave, then I can always edit the comment when I return and contiune. But my 90 year old brain isn't very good at remembering easy things like that.

Hm. That sounds like maybe the text is getting selected and then replaced with the next thing you type. The next time it happens, try doing control-Z, to see if it will undo deleting the text? If one control-Z doesn't work, you might need to slowly do more than one.

Congrats on turning 90! Happy Birthday!!

I think I have solved why we seem to be talking about differenbt worlds. The difference is between the Comment Box that opens in the Forum and the Comment Box that opens when you have opaened a puzzle then opened the comment box to that puzzle. I found no problem with the comment box in the Forum and when I continue to stay in the Forum. My disappearing comments occur when I have finished a puzzle or open a puzzle to make a comment. When I tested the puzzle comment box it was easy to make any contents disappear, I simply opened a puzzle went to the View an Make Comments at the bottom left of the puzzle. Typing in somethint then moving the mouse cussor just below the box and clicking is enought to make the text disappear. When the box is reopened the text will appear briefly the go away.

Hm. I too was talking about commenting on a puzzle. I am baffled about why your browser is doing this.

Norma, could you make a comment disappear and then click in the box (the box where you type in the comment text) and do control-Z (for Undo) to see if it reappears?

Also, is anybody else reading this who uses Windows 7? Could you try it out and see if this happens to you too?

I tried the control z with no results.

Are you going to a puzzle from the Home page and not the Forum page? I have no problem if I am still in the Forum.

It makes me laugh to think that for some reason I am the only one on this site that has this problem. LOL Is this my 15 minutes of fame?

If i remember because my comment is going to be longish I type it in Word then copy paste. (If I remember. Not always a sure thing)

Norma, I think I know what's going on. If you go away from the comments window and then you try to go back to it by clicking on the "View and Make Comments" button again, it will reopen that window with nothing in the comment box.

That window was still open, but hidden behind other windows. When you click on the button, it reopens the window as if new.

What you need to do when you want to go back is go to the taskbar and find the icon for your browser. If you click on it it will show you the open windows. Choose the one with the comment box and you will find the comment still there.

I think Joe is onto what the issue is. I've been thinking this all along but didn't know how to word it. Norma has left the original comment open but is opening a new comment window when she's trying to return and complete her original comment. Both windows are open simultaneously.

Thank you, thank you Joe and Burdie. I should have realized that but I after leaving this site I would close extra windows but never paid attention to what they were.

Now, if I an just remember........

I was thinking that might be the problem as I read through the thread, so when Valerie asked Norma to try control-Z, I was expecting Back (I don't use many hotkeys so I didn't think it odd) and my brain even processed the typed "Undo" as Back...and was surprised that that didn't work. By the end of the thread I realized my mistake of misunderstanding Valerie's intent, not mistaking the diagnosis. This seemed like an easy thing to describe in my head :D

An update: Last July I added code to ask, "Are you sure you want to leave this page?" when a person has an un-saved comment and tries to navigate away, in the hope that that would help with this problem. I haven't heard anybody mention the problem since then, so maybe it helped?

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