Draft page - Pros & Cons

[tbct_mt2]

DRAFT PAGE - PROS & CONS

Announcement: Drafts (theymos)

A draft is now saved whenever you post or preview a PM or post. You can see your saved drafts here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=drafts

By the way: Even if your post fails with some error, a draft is likely to get saved. The draft is saved before most errors can occur.

Let's begin with this one. There are still some users incorrectly understand about how draft page works, me too (minutes ago). This is why I put my thread under testing for a while to see how my draft page shows.

Each time you click "Preview", a new draft is saved.

There are some incorrect understandings like above quote as I used to. After testing with the draft version of the thread, I can confirm that users don't have to click on Preview button to save draft version of their posts.
Forum automatically save your posts or (not must) preview PMs/ posts.

.
If you click "preview" once, there will be an immediate backup of the current version of you post (good as backup).
And another backup of the final version after clicking "post".

PROs

• Getting recent deleted posts back, when you rethink that its contents are helpful
• Getting previous version of your thread, when you wrongly edited it and clicked on save button
• Your drafts, in draft page, will not be replaced with newest versions (you can get different versions of your posts in draft page, if they are not yet deleted)

CONs

• Limited to only last 100 posts and drafts will be automatically deleted after 7 days
• Unable to recover your deleted posts to where it initially posted
• Almost unable to see where you post it (post ordinal number). Exception: You can only get which thread you post it, when you quote posts of others when reply them
• Unable to know when you post it

I know would be useful for users, but as a moderator I hope this doesn't happen with deleting other users posts as it would be a nightmare.

ADVICE
- Using external text editors (Notepad, Microsoft Word, etc.) to save your drafts, especially you plan to reply someone else with long posts, or compose your own threads.
- Paying attention when you see a pop-up window, which ask you to confirm before deleting your posts

Older threads on drafts
Are there methods to move backwards to previous version of OPs in the forum
Request for additional confirmation window before deleting the post.
Drafts don't include where and when you initially posted
[SUGGESTION] Drafts Page

[hugeblack]

Who can access this data? I think that only administrators have access to such data.

I can confirm that users don't have to click on Preview button to save draft version of their posts.

I think you need to either click to post or preview in order to save draft. The forum does not do this automatically.
You can also extend the duration and add a link to the topic through some source user scripts.

[bitmover]

I think that this draft page is almost useless the way it is.

Auto deletion after 7 days, lack of manual deletion, and so on. We are all basically forced to use a third party editor, even having a native draft page here.

I created a topic about it in meta with suggestions of improvement, but nobody seemed to care, the answers were like "just use an external editor"....

[PrimeNumber7]

I think that this draft page is almost useless the way it is.

The "drafts" feature is for drafts of posts you are composing, and thats it. Its primary purpose is to prevent users from loosing what they have been writing if they have a poor internet connection, or if someone needs to spend a long time researching and composing a post.

The drafts feature is not designed to serve as a way to write yourself notes, nor to provide you a template for your posts/threads. If you will be making many OPs or posts that need to follow a similar template, you can create the template, send a PM to yourself and use the "label" feature to allow you to quickly locate the PM.

[bitmover]

If you will be making many OPs or posts that need to follow a similar template, you can create the template, send a PM to yourself and use the "label" feature to allow you to quickly locate the PM.

This is a work around. PM were not designed for that. Although it works, and it is a good idea, when the administrator think about solution he shouldn't think about workarounds.

What you are suggesting should be done in the drafts pages, not in a PM sent to yourself (which is like an autism  solution, nobody should be able to PM yourself)

[tbct_mt2]

Who can access this data? I think that only administrators have access to such data.

I can confirm that users don't have to click on Preview button to save draft version of their posts.

Please don't make me laugh if you actually don't know that page. 
Everyone can see their draft pages through the link (after log-in): https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=drafts

I think you need to either click to post or preview in order to save draft. The forum does not do this automatically.
You can also extend the duration and add a link to the topic through some source user scripts.

I don't check about PMs, but for posts, I checked it myself. I created the thread, just to checked it will be saved in draft page without clicking on Preview button or not. Result is without Preview button click, Draft page saved it. You can check it with your next post.
Honestly, I read other people said that clicking on Preview button is mandatory thing to have saved posts in draft page, but it is incorrect, from what theymos wrote and from my experience.

I think that this draft page is almost useless the way it is.

Auto deletion after 7 days, lack of manual deletion, and so on. We are all basically forced to use a third party editor, even having a native draft page here.

I created a topic about it in meta with suggestions of improvement, but nobody seemed to care, the answers were like "just use an external editor"....

But it at least can help if you delete your posts, and want to get it back within 7 days. As I wrote in OP, for important content, it is always better to compose, edit, save in external text editor. Draft page only should be used in the case we don't save texts in external text editors.
In reality, I think most of us rarely use draft page, and it is one of reasons why draft page has not yet been upgraded. Mainly due to lack of interests, and real usecases.

[PrimeNumber7]

If you will be making many OPs or posts that need to follow a similar template, you can create the template, send a PM to yourself and use the "label" feature to allow you to quickly locate the PM.

This is a work around. PM were not designed for that. Although it works, and it is a good idea, when the administrator think about solution he shouldn't think about workarounds.

What you are suggesting should be done in the drafts pages, not in a PM sent to yourself (which is like an autism  solution, nobody should be able to PM yourself)

When there is limited time/resources to implement new features, a work around is probably the solution you are going to be offered. I don't believe the administration has a lot of people working on coding new features.

I have emailed myself before so I can have access to things like links, files or ideas that I can reference later, especially when I am not at the computer I conduct most of my personal work when I come across any of the above. I don't see why a PM would be any different.

[tbct_mt2]

When there is limited time/resources to implement new features, a work around is probably the solution you are going to be offered. I don't believe the administration has a lot of people working on coding new features.

Admin, theymos, is the only person who codes the forum, this one, and Epochtalk (new forum software). As theymos said, he is more familiar with the forum, after years, and he has not yet really wanted to move our forum to Epochtalk due to some risks when making data transitions.

None of these ideas are new to me. Even if I don't respond to suggestions, I do read them, and they float around in my mind going forward. If it's not already done, then there's some reason why. A big possible reason is that I'm the only person who does development on the current code, and my time is limited. Another big reason is that this is a huge forum with complex dynamics, and even small policy changes can have big effects which need to be thought through very carefully.

I started the topic because I saw lots of people think that they have to click on Preview button to save their posts in Draft page. Then, I discovered theymos announcement about Draft page long time ago, that clearly states that users don't have to do this, clicking on Preview button is just one of triggers for Draft page.

[nc50lc]

I don't check about PMs, but for posts, I checked it myself. I created the thread, just to checked it will be saved in draft page without clicking on Preview button or not. Result is without Preview button click, Draft page saved it. You can check it with your next post.
Honestly, I read other people said that clicking on Preview button is mandatory thing to have saved posts in draft page, but it is incorrect, from what theymos wrote and from my experience.

It's a backup thinggy.
If you still haven't clicked "Post" or "Preview", and the browser crashed/PC shut down unexpectedly, there will be no draft for that particular post.
Drafts will be saved after you've clicked either of the two buttons.

If you click "preview" once, there will be an immediate backup of the current version of your post (good as backup).
And another backup of the final version after clicking "post".

[PrimeNumber7]

I started the topic because I saw lots of people think that they have to click on Preview button to save their posts in Draft page. Then, I discovered theymos announcement about Draft page long time ago, that clearly states that users don't have to do this, clicking on Preview button is just one of triggers for Draft page.

The other trigger is to actually try to post something. Your data could still get lost if your connection to the forum/internet is dropped, eg if you have a poor internet connection.

[tbct_mt2]

.
If you still haven't clicked "Post" or "Preview", and the browser crashed/PC shut down unexpectedly, there will be no draft for that particular post.
Drafts will be saved after you've clicked either of the two buttons.

Exactly, that is what some users incorrectly understood. Drafts will be saved in Draft page if users click on either of two buttons, Post, or Preview.
Some users think they have to click Preview, before clicking on Post to save their posts in Draft page.

If you click "preview" once, there will be an immediate backup of the current version of you post (good as backup).
And another backup of the final version after clicking "post".

This is what I did not think of. Thank you.

[wwzsocki]

.
If you still haven't clicked "Post" or "Preview", and the browser crashed/PC shut down unexpectedly, there will be no draft for that particular post.
Drafts will be saved after you've clicked either of the two buttons.

...Drafts will be saved in Draft page if users click on either of two buttons, Post, or Preview...

If you click "preview" once, there will be an immediate backup of the current version of you post (good as backup).
And another backup of the final version after clicking "post".

...

Exactly this should be changed to save drafts as only we start to write a new post because I already lost a couple of times very valuable post, only because I haven't click on the "preview" button and it was to soon to publish and unfinished work and to click "post". Computer crash, lost internet connection or just a misclick is enough to lose the post completely if you haven't previewed it soon enough.

Of course, I learned already my lesson and now if I know or see that the post will be bigger than average one, I click on "preview" and save the draft just after I start writing, but to be honest if you don't need to use special characters, then this is not needed and that is why so many times is overlooked by many.