How do you use the "draft" option

[Rizzrack]

Recently the draft option has been implemented on epochtalk: https://github.com/epochtalk/epochtalk/releases/tag/v1.25.0

There's a new version
Cheers

1.25.0 (2020-07-21)
Bug Fixes
issue with draft status not clearing after message appears (97050d2)
Features
add db method for querying post draft by user id (d615417)
add db method for upserting post drafts (4a8d11b)
add resource for updating/retrieving drafts (3374e70)
allow null for draft, in order to clear out users current draft (12f0988)
clear out draft after post is created (e3bf192)
create route to update post drafts (a956c61)
display draft status in editor (d96ba80)
dont save draft if it hasnt changed (59c94cc)
load draft on editor open (59e1328)
route for getting post draft now functional (ba56180)
update to use latest version of epoch (e111b6c)

But still needs some updates to work as good or even better than it already does.

My proposals would be
- have a "save to draft" button on the editor and eliminate the concept "create draft when you preview post"
- keep the current max 100 drafts and delete them after 7 days. Since they got separated,different drafts for posts and PMs, maybe 50 for posts and 50 for PMs...

Would like to know how you use the draft option (as a place to store templates, don't use them that much etc), how many drafts do you have and if you guys have any other ideas or proposals for this topic. i.e the option to delete some drafts from the list etc.

Your input would be highly appreciated.

P.S. I know it's not the most important feature but thought to start with this one as it is fresh out of the coding oven and see where it goes

[suchmoon]

I think having drafts saved automatically when previewing or posting is great. Most of the time I use drafts when something went wrong building a large post (clicked the "back" button accidentally etc) so I can recover from the automatic preview draft. I would forget to click the manual draft button.

I would make the max number of drafts and days configurable, default to 1000 and 30 days perhaps. Storage is cheap.

[TheBeardedBaby]

I agree with both of you.
I used this option only a few times when I accidentally deleted a reply full with data and formatting which will take a lot of time to write from scratch. But in the current situation the draft is saved until you post the post, then the draft is deleted. Also I don't have the access to the previous edits of the draft only the last one. What I noticed, if you edit your last post the draft is saved, then you save your edited post, and make a new one then comes a question if you want to load the draft. This shouldn't be like that. If you edit the post and hit "edit post" button the draft should be cleared.
 

[Rizzrack]

Yes, seems the first iteration has one single draft. Starting to think it might be enough... dunno

It saves the text as a draft as you write automatically.
If you close the window, pc restarts, bsod etc and open a thread you are prompted if you want to load the draft. Thing is after if you write in another thread it overwrites the existing draft.

It would serve as a single backup for unexpected situations.
As @suchmoon mentioned that this is the main use case and no one else mentioned any other one I would say it does what it's supposed to... I guess...

[LoyceV]

I would make the max number of drafts and days configurable, default to 1000 and 30 days perhaps. Storage is cheap.

I checked a while ago, and 100 drafts lasts me about a day. I preview and edit a lot.
I sometimes use the drafts to restore a lost post, but it's quite useless as it doesn't last long. I'd even want more than 1000 posts (and 30 days) to be more useful. I currently have an unfinished post that I've been postponing for about a month. Once in a while, I click "Preview" to keep a new draft again, but I've also saved a backup on my PC. For convinience, it would be good if drafts are more reliable.

If you close the window, pc restarts, bsod etc and open a thread you are prompted if you want to load the draft. Thing is after if you write in another thread it overwrites the existing draft.

Most of the time, my browser restores all tabs and the unfinished post is still there. But not all the time, and I've lost some posts that way.

[TheBeardedBaby]

The number of saved drafts and the days they were saved could be rank/activity connected. The same as the posting time. That way the server load will be reduced quite a lot as many newbies(spambies) never "level up". If you reach Legendary, then you can have those 1000 drafts and 30 days history.