Can't access a draft containing only a quote


  • BINNED

    Continuing the discussion from The Official "Likes" Thread:

    @Onyx said:

    I just checked if I was just blind but it's really gone if you do it the way I did. Got a workaround too (yay /enthusiasm).

    Time to spam the meta section again...

    Repro:

    • Select and quote text in a post. This opens the editor and puts the quote in the input box.
    • Hide the editor
    • You can't access the editor any more without either hitting "Reply" or quoting again. Both will clear your previous quote.

    Workaround:

    • Option 1: put some random text in after the quote
    • Option 2: swear, try to scroll back to post you quoted, give up, get drunk

    I tried using the advice of "quote everything you want to reply to as you scroll down" and look where it got me. Hello Bug category 👋


  • BINNED

    @Onyx said:

    get drunk

    There is one solution for everything a crowbar and a bottle of liquor.
    There are two solutions for everything a crowbar, a bottle of liquor and a case of beer ...


  • Banned

    This is actually by design -- we assume a reply with no content, when minimized, means "discard". Quotes with no content typed by you are considered no content.

    E.g. another repro:

    1. Click reply
    2. Minimize reply

    Note that the empty reply goes away.



  • An inconsistency, click "Reply", then click the "Quote" button in the reply window, then hide or cancel the reply.

    You get the same effect (for cancelling or hiding the post box) as if you were typing a new post, and not just doing a "quote reply" without adding anything.


  • :belt_onion:

    @codinghorror said:

    Quotes with no content typed by you are considered no content.

    Except when I wanted to highlight multiple points from someone's post, so I highlighted one, click Quote Reply. The reply editor popped up over the next bit I wanted to highlight, so I minimized it to quote the next part... only to lose my first quote.

    I was all 😦 and then 👌 and then :angry:
    Now i'm just 🐂

    Yes, I clearly did it wrong. I could have just scrolled the page to get the next part in view to highlight. Because things should definitely only work the exact one way that one person thought they should.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @darkmatter said:

    Because things should definitely only work the exact one way that one person thought they should.

    I can't tell you how many times I've screamed exactly that at a bug ticket forum thread from a user.


  • :belt_onion:

    I was so sarcastic in my own comment that now I can't tell whether you're agreeing with the sarcastic response sarcastically or seriously, and even if I knew which, I don't know I could tell whether that means we agree!


  • ♿ (Parody)

    Well, I certainly have gotten mad when my lusers for doing shit I didn't think of and making me fix stuff. Life goes on.


    Filed Under: Until it doesn't


  • :belt_onion:

    Nope you meant exactly what I thought you meant. Yes I do hate it too.
    Especially when it was a feature that I went out of my way to implement and then they ask why the hell does it do that can you please not have it do that?


    Filed Under:Reveling in user status here. Reveling. [spoiler]REVELING.[/spoiler] [spoiler]REVELING.[/spoiler]

  • Banned

    Honestly, I am not really that adamant about keeping this confusion.

    Easier to explain: If composer has text in it it collapses, otherwise it goes away.

    Though edits definitely make stuff marginally confusing. Cause after you click edit its fine for collapse to hide it, unless you changed something.



  • @codinghorror said:

    This is actually by design -- we assume a reply with no content, when minimized, means "discard". Quotes with no content typed by you are considered no content.

    E.g. another repro:

    Click reply
    Minimize reply

    Note that the empty reply goes away.

    If I quote something, that's a piece of information that I want included in my comment. How is that not content?


  • :belt_onion:

    @sam said:

    Though edits definitely make stuff marginally confusing. Cause after you click edit its fine for collapse to hide it, unless you changed something.

    I think users would live if when they click the minimize button it doesn't automatically try to guess what they really meant1 rather than just doing the thing they told it to. Do windows in any OS automatically exit the app when you minimize them if you hadn't interacted with them enough for them to deem you as having earned their existence?

    1) there's a cancel button if I wanted to cancel



  • Well, they do on mobile under some circumstances but certainly not on full fat desktop. Second guessing what a user wants to do is right up there on the cardinal sins of WTF list.


  • Grade A Premium Asshole

    @codinghorror said:

    This is actually by design -- we assume a reply with no content, when minimized, means "discard". Quotes with no content typed by you are considered no content.

    Let me translate: "You will use forums the way I say to use forums or you will not use them at all!!"

    Discourse appears to be a barrier to conversation.


  • Banned

    I am not saying it cannot change, I was just explaining the logic. Same logic that prevents someone from posting a quote with no other content, it is tied into that code path.



  • This sounds like a first: an intentional design decision that Jeff is willing to change when presented with real world user feedback.



  • @codinghorror said:

    I am not saying it cannot change, I was just explaining the logic. Same logic that prevents someone from posting a quote with no other content, it is tied into that code path.

    Wouldn't that also prevent saving drafts with less than whatever the minimum post length is? Why not check if the draft is empty/whitespace instead of checking if it can be posted?


  • Banned

    Possible, submit a PR to change if you like!

    Filed under: so I can revert it


  • Grade A Premium Asshole

    Yeah, just don't ask for pagination. That will not happen.

    Sidenote: How long before all posts with the word "pagination" just get dumped to /null by default?


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