Disappearing changes

Question

I'm noticing some new changes on some profiles, followed by "blank" changes that appear to wipe out the previous changes.

I'm guessing the person making the edits is innocently using the browser's back button which probably re-submits the form in its previous state.

If that's really what's happening... is there nothing that can be done to prevent, or at least catch these errors?

For example, look at the recent change history for [[Brownlow-71]]

Comments

I have done this a number of times lately in profiles I manage - wiped out all the info in the biography, probably by using the back button as you say. Luckily I have noticed, so I looked through the changes and was able to restore my work.

Still, I don't quite see why a "resubmit by back button" should empty the field. I mean, it obviously does, but why should it?

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On my PowerBook using Chrome, the back button does not save changes unless I've already clicked on save changes.

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To me, it looks like the edits are just someone hitting enter without any changes.  I do wonder why information for a different profile is on this profile.  Also, the Wikitree-ID of where the sources can be found is incorrect.

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Jillaine, the only time I use the back button is when I have entered edit mode without changing anything. Well, you may argue that I have changed my mind ;-)

So when hitting the back button saves an empty field for the biography, that is certainly an unintended change.

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Yeah, so I'd want to see some testing to see if that's really the problem. The back button shouldn't save anything.

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it could be that he intended to remove the info, but then wouldn't there be a revision that showed the diff of the text being removed? the back button was the only theory I could come up with. I've also sent him a private email asking about it (along with other questions).

Answer 1

Thanks to [[Pieterse-13]], I believe the problem was misplaced and missing html tags. Once the tags were restored, the bio text became visible again.

This makes much more sense.

Comments

My pleasure