"This post will be deleted in 24 hours if not flagged..." ??

Every once in a while after I’ve edited a post, the text of my post goes “poof!” and is replaced by this message, for no obvious reason I’ve ever seen. So far I’ve been able to undo it by more or less randomly reeling through the previous edits, re-editing them (and ctrl-C copying the edits just in case!), and then clicking on “save” while keeping my fingers crossed. But I figure there’s got to be some logical explanation for it, and a more straightforward way of undoing it.:wink:

I looked for a FAQ or a prior thread about this but could find neither. Can anyone enlighten me? Why does it happen? And what is “flagging”?

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Might have pressed the delete button, which is next to the edit button?

I wondered about that, but I’m pretty sure I can’t have done that as many times as posts have gone poof! (I only post from a desktop, and after 25 years of post-DOS computer use, my mouse-aim is pretty good…:wink: I do wonder if maybe there’s some sort of non-obvious lag loading all of a page’s elementsthat leaves the forum software thinking I “clicked” on one spot when I thought I’d clicked on another - I’ll try to pay more attention from now on.

It is the small flag button next to the trash (delete) button. Anyone clicks on the flag is to notify the moderators that there is a problem with the post. It can be your own post if you want modifications or you want to signal a problem of a certain post.

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So, how does that affect posts that “go poof” for no apparent reason? Can one “flag” one’s own post and request that it be “undeleted” (even when the poster didn’t actually “delete” it)?

PS: I realized after I posted my earlier comments that it’s not physically possible to click on a “delete” icon in the situation I described in my first post. The scenario I was describing occurs after “saving” an edit, and there is no “delete button” anywhere near the “save” button. The only options are “save edit” and “cancel”, and I would assume “cancel” is supposed to work the way it normally does, but ignoring the most recent edits and “reverting” to the last-saved post?

Did you mean a saved draft that was gone? If this was the case click your avatar on the top right hand corner, you will instantly see a page with a menu bar showing summary, below that you will see on the left the following menu, click Drafts.

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Normally, if every post before publishing is automatically saved, unless you click “cancel”, there will be a pop up window asking “abandon” or “keep” your edit.

No. As I described in my first post, on more than one occasion, I’ll “save and edit” a previously posted comment, but instead of my latest-edited post appearing in the thread, the body of the post will “disappear” and be replaced by the message “This post will be deleted in 24 hours if not flagged.” It only happens when I’ve found myself wanting to edit a post several times within a fairly short time-span, but when it does happen, there doesn’t seem to be any obvious reason. Nor is there an obvious way to “undo” it, though as I described earlier, I’ve been able to manage that by “scrolling” back to an earlier version, re-editing that, and then saving it again.

PS: The next time it happens, I’ll try to remember to take a screenshot. Unless the same thing has happened to you, what I’m trying to describe may not be at all clear…

Are you talking about this? You edited the post by clicking on the orange pencil button?

Yes. Then made some edits, then clicked on “save edit”, whereupon the body of my post apparently got/gets “deleted” and is replaced by the message I quoted. It doesn’t happen every time I edit posts, but it has happened to me more than a few times at this point…

It’s better you use the following to edit the post.

Below each post, you will see this menu, click the pencil.
05

If you want to delete, click the 3 dots, you open the second menu and you will see a trash, the delete and also the flag button.
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The top edit menu is a bit technical, it is more for using it to revert to a certain version. It can be confusing.

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Yes, this will certainly help. As personally, I have never had this problem.

OK, sorry, I got confused between “edit pencil icons”.

When I edit my posts before they “go poof”, I do it using the “edit pencil” below the post, as you describe. I then click on “save edits”, and - sometimes - the body of the text then disappears and the post shows up as if I’d deleted it, even though I didn’t actually “delete” it by hitting any delete/trash can icon. It’s only then that I use the orange edit pencil (above the body of the post) to recover or “undelete” the post by reverting to a prior version (without the edits I typed just before the post vanished), then re-typing the last edits I made, and re-saving it.

If the problem continues, it can be a bug, may I ask which navigator (with the version number) you are using? which OS and the version number? This will probably need some time for investigation.

Maybe for the time being, try to use another navigator, to see if this problem still persists or not.

I have an orange pencil attached to a couple of my posts. What does this mean? Have they not been published due to too many edits? Here’s the thread. Beyond Burger ground “beef” and sausages at WF. Anyone tried them?

It simply shows that the author (you) have edited the post and how many times you have done so. The system notes this automatically. I imagine it could be handy if some one remembered a post as saying one thing and when they looked at it again the info was different. This notation would let them know there had been a change in content.

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I wish the flag and the like buttons were not adjacent as my thick fingers sometimes flag rather than like. and then hopefully I can undo it .
That’s on iPhone.
Amazing how different the forum looks on a Fire tablet. Disorienting at times.
:slight_smile:

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