Is there some way to change the behavior of the forums when posting? Several times I have taken so long to compose a reply that I have timed out and had to log back in. Everything that I had typed in is lost. Fortunately I have had my text copied to the clipboard, but this will be a REAL source of annoyance for anyone who has spent a long time composing a reply and have it destroyed. Can't I be returned to the same point, with my data intact, when the logon finishes? Cal

If you are idle for more than 30 minutes, your session records in the database are cleaned up. If you plan on composing a long post, it should be done in another app and pasted into your browser. Russell

Yeah, I figured that out. So I guess you aren't interested in improvement ideas, SORRY TO WASTE YOUR TIME. Cal

That functionality is built into the CGI scripting server we are running for this site. Sorry, but it's not something that can easily be changed. We're always interested in site improvement ideas. In fact, most of our site improvements come directly from member suggestions. We just feel that 30 minutes is a good balance between allowing idle time and keeping the abandoned sessions cleared from the database. Russell

Well, 30 minutes isn't a lot of time to compose a thoughtful reply, particularly if one pauses to try a few things out. And once one has invested considerable time into a post, it is VERY disconcerting to have it disappear into the ether, but you obviously don't care about that. What's worse, you have to loose a message or two before you figure out what the time-out period is. I can't even hit "back" on the browser and get back to the text; it's gone. (Probably because your CGI script is more interested in refreshing the banner adds than anything else.) The data in the form goes somewhere; what do you do, just throw it away? Thanks. If you are trying to promote two line posts in broken English, full of misspellings and discourage substance, then you are right on track. Here's a suggestion for you: try reading your replies before you hit send. Your reply to me translates into, "Your suggestion has been quickly evaluated and discarded as unworthy of further consideration. Have a nice day." I'm confident that it will never get passed on and thus never fixed. Cal

Cal, I'm sorry we don't quite see eye to eye on this one. There is no one to pass your suggestion to, because I am the one it would be passed to. That's why I moderate this forum. I'm the lead developer on Renderosity. Thrity minutes is an adequate amount of time for 95% of the posts to this forum. If you are writing an essay, this tiny TEXTAREA field isn't the best place to write it in the first place. Also, if you hit Back on your browser and your text is gone, blame your browser, not our site. :) If you'll look through the archives of this forum, you'll see how responsive we are to member requests. It's just, in this case, we feel we have achieved the proper balance of giving the user time to enter his reply with making sure our databases don't swell with use session which are no longer active. Thanks for taking the time to voice your opinion here. It really does matter to us. Russell

That happens to me alot, not because I'm concise, but because I type with one finger! I always Copy my reply to my clipboard before I hit send, then if I've timed out, I just Paste it back in! Hope that helped. 8)