Hi Leon,
Yes, that is very frustrating and it shouldn't happen. I don't know which piece of software is at fault - the browser or the forum software, probably both.
I have seen situations where the message was preserved and where it was lost. I seem to recall Google's Chrome browser was more successful in retaining the message than Mozilla's Firefox. I don't use the Microsoft browsers frequently enough to comment on how they handle it.
When the forum started back in 2004, losing messages while posting happened more frequently, even though no attachments were involved. In those days, the Preview step involved sending the message to the server and could cause problems. Now the Preview step is handled locally on the PC. But any brief loss of communication between the browser and the server would also bounce you back to a blank message window. Brief glitches were more common back then.
To hedge against these situations, I developed a habit of copying and pasting the text of a long message into Notepad, both during drafting of the message and before clicking the 'Preview' or 'Post' button. So if any kind of a glitch happened, the text is preserved in a separate application and can be recovered. I still do this today even though I am not attaching any files. I will make a copy of this message shortly as it gets longer.
I am working on a long term plan to gradually convert all attachments to inline linked images. This will reduce the number of attachments and hence the number of pre-existing names. But there's a truckload of learning and testing involved to implement that plan.
In the meantime, there are a few things one can do to insure against name clashes and message loss in general.
1. Add the date to the beginning of the attachments in the form yyyy-mm-dd will almost certainly guarantee there is not an existing file with the same name. So '4hp.jpg' becomes '2018-11-03-4hp.jpg'.
This is recommended for all attachments. Having to repeat any post is annoying. But this alone won't protect against all possible message loss situations.
2. Using a Notepad backup for the text (suggested for any long message whether attachments included or not).
- Open Notepad.
- Put the cursor in the forum message window where you are are writing your message.
- Right click 'Select All'
- Right click 'Copy'
- Move the cursor to the Notepad window.
- Right click 'Paste'
Or you can use the keyboard shortcuts
- Control-A (select all)
- Control-C (copy)
- Control-V (paste)
Should any kind of message loss situation occur, you can recover your text from Notepad.
3. This is an easier variation of the above, but not as robust as you can't see your backup copy of the text.
- After typing your message, click on 'Preview'.
- Highlight the text in the Preview with the cursor.
- Right click 'Select All'
- Right click 'Copy'
- Now there is a copy of your text in memory
- Should a glitch of any kind occur, you can paste it back into the message window.
But please note, because you can't see your backup copy, there is no guarantee you have one.
The Notepad method is the safest option.
Dave