Warning to new users about timing out of the forums.

[chipsendype]

Why do the forums time people out?
I just lost 2 hours worth of writing a tutorial.
Perhaps pinning a heads up about that might save someone a night of work.

[SMG]

Why do the forums time people out?

There are a finite number of connections possible to the server.

I just lost 2 hours worth of writing a tutorial.

If you still have that same browser open, use the back button and see if you can get to it. Then sign in again in a different tab and you should have your tutorial live again in the first tab. That's what I do when I get timed out. (Life happens and sidetracks all of us when we multi-task.)

If something is going to take a while, there is an option to save drafts of posts. Or you can make a draft in a word processor and cut and paste it into a post and then just do the mark-ups.

[all41]

Why do the forums time people out?
I just lost 2 hours worth of writing a tutorial.
Perhaps pinning a heads up about that might save someone a night of work.

captain obvious---compose your tutorials in a text editor, then copy/paste to the forum tutorials.
Tell about your tutorial

[chipsendype]

Why do the forums time people out?

There are a finite number of connections possible to the server.

I just lost 2 hours worth of writing a tutorial.

If you still have that same browser open, use the back button and see if you can get to it. Then sign in again in a different tab and you should have your tutorial live again in the first tab. That's what I do when I get timed out. (Life happens and sidetracks all of us when we multi-task.)

If something is going to take a while, there is an option to save drafts of posts. Or you can make a draft in a word processor and cut and paste it into a post and then just do the mark-ups.

It's too late for all that, dude. That's Monday morning quarterbacking.

[chipsendype]

Why do the forums time people out?
I just lost 2 hours worth of writing a tutorial.
Perhaps pinning a heads up about that might save someone a night of work.

captain obvious---compose your tutorials in a text editor, then copy/paste to the forum tutorials.
Tell about your tutorial

"Captain Obvious"?
I've been here for 1 day.
If it's your first day on a crab boat, they warn you about ropes around your legs BEFORE you lose something.


It was a tutorial on building an album. from mp3 to album covers to editing, ID3 tagging, audio normalizing...etc.
I'll write up stuff like that in text editor from now on like you recommended.
Too late this time, I touched the stove, got burned won't happen again.
Would have been nice to have read something about it in the rules and guidelines. Nothing about timing out.

[SMG]

It's too late for all that, dude. That's Monday morning quarterbacking.

As listed in my signature, I'm not a dude.

And the information was for future reference for you and anyone else who might be reading.

Would have been nice to have read something about it in the rules and guidelines. Nothing about timing out.

It's nice to hear you read the rules and guidelines. Most users do not.

Sessions are based on usage. If you are previewing your topic (hit the preview button) or taking any action which hits the server (refreshing a forum page), that restarts the clock with regards to your session. I seem to recall the timer is at least one hour of inactivity, but I'm not positive about the specifics.

[chipsendype]

As listed in my signature, I'm not a dude.

Sorry about that. Didn't see it, ma'am.

[Dullard du Jour]

You got 2 hours before the session timed out? That is pretty good, most sites boot a idle connection a lot quicker.

Try this next time, look at the material you have to present, usually tutorials can be divided into sections, so if you have 4 sections, then start your thread and then make 4 or 5 posts in a row, marking each one as reserve, such as "reserved for future use". This way you have all your tutorial in a row at the beginning of the thread. Long tutorials are easier read and comprehended if they are broken up into logical sections.

[busdriver12]

If something is going to take a while, there is an option to save drafts of posts. Or you can make a draft in a word processor and cut and paste it into a post and then just do the mark-ups.

I would go further to say that if you're using a text editor/word processor for your text, save often. I learnt this the hard way as many years ago as I lost what I was doing (large project) with a power outage. CTRL-S is now my best friend

Look forward to reading your tutorial chipsendype, It has piqued my interest.

[Coggy]

I guess most of us have lost work due to web site timeouts at least once.

CTRL-S is now my best friend

Beware using that in vi or vim, or other shell-based editors. Ctrl-S freezes output from the editor so it looks dead. But it's not, and Ctrl-Q will turn output back on and you see the results of all your tappity-tappity "Huh, it's frozen" typing.

Similarly, :wq doesn't work in GUI based editors like LibreOffice. I've done that a few times.

[busdriver12]

CTRL-S is now my best friend

Beware using that in vi or vim, or other shell-based editors. Ctrl-S freezes output from the editor so it looks dead. But it's not, and Ctrl-Q will turn output back on and you see the results of all your tappity-tappity "Huh, it's frozen" typing.

Similarly, :wq doesn't work in GUI based editors like LibreOffice. I've done that a few times.

Well, it works in Libre Office Writer, Calc, xed and micro which is what I use