Major Geeks is killing carefully written posts by logging me out

I just lost a post I spend a good deal of time writing and proofreading because after I entered it, the website informed me I was not logged in and killed my text. I believe I was actually logged in a fairly short time earlier, when I clicked on Post Reply and turned the thread upside down. it appears to me that the logging out probably took place during the very time I was sitting and writing and proofreading my post to the thread.

I just went to an adjacent MG tab where I have been inactive for the entire present session. It said "Welcome, conceptualclarity." I decided to test this tab where I have been inactive by clicking on Post Reply to see if the website would perceive me as logged out. So I turned the thread upside down, and so far the website seems to still regard me as logged in at this page where I have been totally inactive.

This kinds of unpredictability makes no sense.

How can the user prevent this when he writes in what appears to be a logged-in state, then only after entering his writing is informed of being logged out?

This is not the first time that an irrational logout has killed my writing on this website. I do not see any reason why the majorgeeks.com website should be logging its users out. Why not as long as we have the MG tab open, let us be assured of being logged in?

If Major Geeks wants to continue logging people out for some reason, then the very first moment one types a letter into a box, the website should inform the user of this logged-out state. And there should be absolutely no logging people out while they are in the middle if writing.

 

No idea what may have caused that but I can understand your frustration. For many years I used a very badly behaved UK forum website, dormant now not surprisingly, and because of problems like yours got into the habit of a quick Ctrl A, Ctrl C from time to time when composing longish posts. At least if you do lose it you only have to Ctrl V to enter it all again.

 

Are putting a check mark in the "Remember Me?" box just after the "User Name", before you click the "Log in" button?

To prevent losing your typed up post in case this happens again, use a text editor(Notepad?) first to type your post and then copy and paste.

Edit: Earthling is quick.

 

That happened to me several times before I learned to deal with it.

It's not just majorgeeks.com. Managing an internet forum isn't child's play.
Whatever the cause(s) are for the premature log out, it's not something that is under our control.
The solution or work around is to do it in a way that IS under your control, as plastidust suggested.

You have the advantage of using your favorite text editor and you don't have to be logged in.
If you want to use quotations, you can add those to your text after logging in.

Some text editors have a clipboard manager built in, or you might consider installing one.
There are several available in Office Tools

 

Conceptualclarity, there is a small free text editor application called bbEditor by noahdfear that you may find quite handy. It is designed specifically for typing a post for forums that allow the use of bb code in posts, such as MajorGeeks.

From bbEditor you can preview your post in your default browser with the click of button. It uses approximately 25MB of ram(when running) and 209KB of drive space plus the files(posts) you choose to save. It does not require installation, if you don't like it just delete it.

I don't normally recommend downloading from any other site than MajorGeeks but I didn't find it listed.

You can safely download it from here:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/bbeditor/.

 

Wow, that's pretty hard core, for a Geek.

You might like this one.

Notepad2 Bookmark Edition

 

I brought my browser back up after shutting it down when my system appeared stressed. Then I just lost another message, and the page that came up said this :

I don't understand what this is talking about. This has happened to me THREE consecutive times as I have tried to post at the thread I started at http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=279773. The fourth time I got it through.

LastPass does a pretty good job of auto-login for me on MajorGeeks. So I don't have to do it manually as you describe. But before I got that established, yes, it was definitely "Remember Me." I think LastPass is doing it, that is.

Thanks for calling my attention to that page. It's worth some study.

I hope MG will consider making Jarte a Pick. It's got fine tools and a great autosave function with backups. The developer has been very helpful to me over e-mail.

Anybody have an opinion on the 14.5 MB SSuite Office - WordGraph as an alternative to LibreOffice, which is a real clunker?

Thanks for bringing that to my attention. Only 209KB. Nice.

I get the impression that's a pretty reputable site, is it not?

Thanks, folks, for all the program suggestions. I think right now I would rather try and remember to copy to my clipboard every time before I hit submit in preference to using something else. I have an excellent clipboard program running realtime, Clipboard Help+Spell by donationcoder. But bbEditor on my Quick Launch might be a good idea.

 

Jarte is my favorite and the developer is very helpful, even if you just use the free version like I do. Tabs, Favorite files, Recent files, so many handy features
Only thing that might be a problem for some people is that Jarte does not support Unicode (characters like Chinese etc)
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/jarte.html

When I want to reply to a post (like now) I click the Quote button then copy the text and paste it into Jarte, then I can copy/past relevant parts of the post (as above) and read the post again when necessary to create the best reply possible.

Another good way to save your text is with Ditto clipboard manager (free), you can bring up the Ditto window and view the last 10 saved or search for it
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/ditto.html

 

The advantage of using a seperate text editor is, you type-up the post first and then when satisfied with what you've typed you press:

Ctrl-A >
Ctrl-C(now in the clip board) >
switch to "site's post entry editor" >
Ctrl-V​

Now your post is in the text editor, the clip board and in the site's post entry editor.

Even if the browser crashes or connectivity is lost you still have what you've typed. And if you used the "Save" file option from within the editor, you've pretty much negated the problems of lost text associated with having to reboot. If you use bbEditor or something similar, you have the added feature of easily previewing, in the default browser, how your post will appear in the forum.

Of course this method doesn't guarantee the accuracy of the post, as I have aptly demonstrated in some(many) of my own posts.

All of the suggestions offered so far(mine included) are methods to avoid loosing what you've typed(for a post) in case of a mishap. Barring system instability(stressed?), any of them should work admirably to prevent the loss of a post.

While the amount of drive space is notable the amount of ram used can be crucial in some instances.

Yes, it is considered a reputable site.

 

I've never been logged out while typing.

I guess I type fast?

 

Are you blocking cookies in your browser settings?

If not then it could be a corrupt cookie. Try clearing your cookies and temp files from your browser, then restart your browser and log back in with 'Remember me' checked.

 

What about if I skipped wiping out all my cookies--I'm registered at many websites--and instead found my MajorGeeks cookies in CCleaner and got rid of them?

 

Yes you can remove them selectively.

 

conceptualclarity...

evilfantasy has a good point. In CCleaner, take a look at options->cookies. There you can exclude cookies from removal. This is a good feature to take full advantage of imo. Using it effectively makes it possible to remove cookies with each cleaning, while still preserving the ones you use most...

 

Indeed, every time I use CCleaner for disk cleaning, the first thing I do is go to the Cookies option and whitelist the new cookies of sites where I'm registered. I also do this with Advanced Uninstaller PRO, which likewise enables whitelisting of cookies. I don't allow any other programs to remove cookies.

 

I just ran across this reading the Logitech Blog. I haven't tried it but it sounds promising.

Lazarus browser add-on

 

Yes, I'm quite fond of Lazarus, next best thing after Session Manager and Session Buddy in my view. It is native to the Mozila family of browsers. as with many such extensions, it has less configuration available in its form in the Chromium browser family. I have it enabled in Chrome, but it doesn't appear on the webpage, and I don't believe irt's really functioning there.

I went to the cookies sections of Advanced Uninstaller PRO and CCleaner and deleted the cookies for MG and another website giving me trouble. We'll see how it goes.