# Timing out alert



## srta chicken

Hi,

I'm writing to ask if the tech people could add a pop-up alert, so that 20 seconds to a minute before timing out while writing a post or private message, we see we have to do something so as not to lose all our work.  Either that or add a note above the "Submit" button saying something to the effect, "Before clicking 'Submit', we advise you do a "Select all/copy" so that if you have been timed out, you will still have your message to paste, once you log back in.
"
I know, I know, I should remember to watch the clock, but my brain is old and addled and writing in my second language takes so much concentration that I lose track of time. 

A moderator to whom I first posed this question suggested I write my letter in Word first, then just copy-paste.  That may end up being the only alternative.  But it just would be nice not to have to be hopping all over the place, so I thought I'd ask anyway. 

Thank you for your consideration,
srta chicken


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## Nunty

From one addled brain to another, another possibilty is to copy the post or PM before you hit send. That way you have an insurance copy. The way I do it is quick and easy: Ctrl-A (select all), Ctrl-C (copy).


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## Punky Zoé

Hi there!

Sorry, but I didn't notice any time out when posting, and I'm not aware of such an annoyance. Moreover I'm rather slow, especially when writing in English  and I sometimes interrupt the writing for doing other tasks. 

For example, this posting has been interrupted for about ten minutes for some cooking requirements.

So, when does this time out happen?


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## srta chicken

I don't know when the time out happens, but I'm guessing it's at around 20-30 minutes.  The only way I know it happens is when I push "send" and I lose my entire, painstakingly composed message.  It doesn't happen often, which is the problem--I forget there's even an issue and make the same mistake again.  Sigh...my memory just isn't what it used to be.


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## GavinW

srta chicken said:


> I don't know when the time out happens, but I'm guessing it's at around 20-30 minutes. The only way I know it happens is when I push "send" and I lose my entire, painstakingly composed message. It doesn't happen often, which is the problem--I forget there's even an issue and make the same mistake again. Sigh...my memory just isn't what it used to be.


 
I sympathize, it's happened to me too, a few times. With those particularly long messages. Say, 20 mins rather than 30 mins, maybe...


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## Loob

Nunty said:


> From one addled brain to another, another possibilty is to copy the post or PM before you hit send. That way you have an insurance copy. The way I do it is quick and easy: Ctrl-A (select all), Ctrl-C (copy).


I do that routinely too - not for time-out reasons (I didn't know there was a time-out) but because my internet connection isn't very robust.


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## Rayines

srta chicken said:


> I don't know when the time out happens, but I'm guessing it's at around 20-30 minutes.  The only way I know it happens is when I push "send" and I lose my entire, painstakingly composed message.  It doesn't happen often, which is the problem--I forget there's even an issue and make the same mistake again.  Sigh...my memory just isn't what it used to be.


Maybe you can try with "preview" ("vista preliminar") first. While you're writing, you click on "preview" (I have it in Spanish, I don't know if it's exactly the term), you go on with the message, and then again to "preview". Try if it is a way of fixing it.


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## Punky Zoé

Unless I'm totally mistaken about the issue, I'm quite sure, using Firefox, if such a thing happens, I'll be able to recover my entire writing, as it was before submitting, by clicking on the back button in the navigation toolbar.


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## srta chicken

So many great suggestions!  Thank you all so much!  I was unable to think of any solutions because when I'm upset sometimes my brain shuts down, so I'm glad to have written.  With this new arsenal at my disposal, I am sure the time-out issue has officially ceased to be a problem.


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## Carfer

There's another twist around this annoying problem and one that's quite effective for me. Tell WordReference to remember your log-in password. How to do it is a piece of cake: just check the _'Remember me'_ option on the right side of your username when you login and you will not receive any more timeouts until you end your session with WR.
This way, even if you have timed-out while writing your post, the browser performs an automatic login before posting it and you don't loose your work.

There's another plus in this trick: you don't have to write your username and password everytime you enter this site, provided that 
1- you don't log out when you finish using WR (just close the WordReference web page, that is, press the close button, the one with a white 'X' on a red background, or the 'X' on the WordReference tab if you are using a multi-tabbed layout in your web browser) 
2- you don't erase the WordReference cookie (or allow it to be erased by another program like disk cleaners, temporary file cleaners and the like) .

I lost a few long and hardly crafted posts in the first month or so after joining WR and after I complained in a thread she was also posting to, RayInes was kind enough to provide me with her solution, but I kept forgetting to preview my posts all the time, so it didn't really work for me.


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