Save Your Precious Finished Article Somewhere Permanent And Safe Before You Post It -- Don't trust the vagaries of Markdown!!
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Don't send your precious composition off into the wild blue!!
Image Source
My first rant of the day
I just read @arbitrarykitten's cautionary tale of losing her 2000 word post in Markdown when she pushed the "post " button and saw the whole thing disappear.
Steemit has been having its troubles lately -- and to watch your original, carefully composed work disappear into the wild blue is enough to make a serious writer take up serious drinking. Here's the comment / rant I composed (and saved while writing it in another program!!) in answer to the lamentations I found there and in her comments section. If this puts cheetah all in a lather ... tough. Here's the advice as it poured out of my fingers onto the screen ... for anyone who needs it.
You can ignore it and keep on doing what you're doing if you like. Life is all about choices. My husband will. And the next time he loses a document and swears a blue streak, I'll call him an idiot. And once again, he'll fail to learn. Writing this, I remind myself that living with him is also a choice. Take that, too, for what it's worth.
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Having been a writer for decades I always write my original documents in a word processing program. For the last several years I've used Libre Office. Every bit as good as Word AFAIC ... and free!! Find it. Download it. Learn to use it. OMG!!
I would never dream of trying to compose something in Markdown! Back in the early days of computers, I would even print out all my documents so that I could retype one if something went wrong -- with a disc (remember floppies??) or with my computer program. (My then-husband started me out on WordPerfect, which was an absolutely horrible program, notorious for screw-ups during "automatic background save" -- the system would freeze, and notorious, too, for the BSOD for absolutely no reason whatsoever.)
I developed the habit in those days of hitting Ctrl+S every time I even pause to consider my next word or phrase. It's second nature to me now, and I have never been sorry. I haven't lost more than a sentence or two in a document in years. Not even in the unexpected power outages we have here in our very rural location!
(I've tried to get my now-husband to develop this habit, but he won't listen. He has fixed ideas in his head about how computers should work ... and he won't adjust his reality to accommodate how they really do work. So, I just tune out the background swearing and go on with my life.)
Since coming to Steemit, I've also begun writing my comments on a saveable page in Libre Office ... because when I have something to say, I can go on and on and on. (Can you tell?) And losing something I spent more than 15 seconds writing is not a risk I'm willing to take. I, too, learned "the hard way" back when disasters really were not my fault.
Online as in nature, your ability to survive depends on your ability to adapt, and anything you can do to insure your safety is time and effort well spent. Those few minutes you save when you make it easy on yourself will be lost many times over with your next major disaster. Make disaster recovery / disaster prevention one of your missions in life.
In those early days I also learned how much I loathed having to recompose a lost document that I'd already written. They were never as good the second time around (for some reason) ... and I can remember several times when I just shrugged and moved on, leaving the essay lost forever.
I once read a biographical piece on Hemingway that told of how he lost the finished manuscript of his very first novel in a briefcase he forgot and left on a train. Though I never much cared for Hemingway's writing, even I could empathize with the devastation of that moment. The cheapest, most valuable education you can ever gain is learning from other people's mistakes. I learned from his. (Backups, backups, backups of your backups.) Learn from this one. It's the greatest gift you'll give yourself as a writer ever!!
If you prefer a plain-text editor, which I use to format html or to format FOR Markdown -- using their styling, here are two free options:
NoteTab -- for Windows -- the one I prefer
Kate -- originally for Linux, now also available for Windows (honestly, I use them both)
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Original images used under this Creative Commons license or this Creative Commons license and modified by added text.
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BTW, if you're a serious writer but still a small fish in the big Steemit pond, this may interest you. Right now, I curate for this community ... and we are looking for people who love to write and do it well. Artists, musicians and other creatives will also find a warm welcome here. If you'd like to join our growing group of great content creators ... read on. (We have a backlog of applicants presently. If you haven't had a response in a few days, get back in touch with me here and I'll rattle somebody's cage.)
The Marines are looking for a few good men, but we at The Unmentionables are looking for a bunch of good writers, artists and other creative souls on Steemit. If you know you produce good content, and you know it's undervalued, and you really want more exposure to and from other great folks like you, following their passion and doing fine work ... check us out.
The Unmentionables is a fun-and-friendly writing, creating and curating group. We love to see good stuff from ourselves and others who are making a positive contribution to the quality on Steemit. We love to show off what we do ... and support the treasures we've found.
Would you like the chance to see one of your posts featured here? You can join us by filling out a simple form with a few quick questions. Find us here: @unmentionable. Apply to join us here. It's quick. It's easy. And you'll be glad you did. Three of the best reasons I can think of off the top of my head! One of our existing members will have a look at the work on your blog ... or if you know an existing member, get them to vouch for you. (That saves everyone a lot of time!)
Fill out an application if you're interested in joining us. Once again, it's quick. It's easy. Maybe we'll discover we have a new family member and you'll discover you've found a new home. Everybody wins ... 'cause that's what we're about.
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Yes I usually write posts in notepad first. I still have open office, so I guess I really do have an old version, best uninstall it and try again with libre - might be why lots of things have stopped working on it. Ho hum, another thing to go on the to-do list. #theunmentionables
You do need to update. I tried Open Office several years ago and just could not make it work for me. Libre Office is so much better. It's not a cheap "compromise" for Word. Honestly I can't tell the difference. It does everything I want it to ... and life goes on.
You are coreect. I usually compose my post in Office word then I copy them to paste in Esteem.
Awesome post. Thanks.
Regard from Indonesia.
#theunmentionables
I'm glad you found it useful. Thank you for stopping by. And welcome to The Unmentionables.
At bare minimum select all & copy to clipboard before hitting post button is a good habit IMHO
eg CTRL A & CTRL C in windows
Ctrl V will paste if needed.
That is the bare minimum ... and it's a better idea than to wind up with a vanishing post. But if your life is as easily distracted as mine, I might wind up doing something else in the meantime, forgetting what was on the clipboard and over-writing it before getting back to try to post again. (I've done something along those lines more time than I can count.)
But, yes, I always put my finished and formatted post on the clipboard before hitting the "post" button and I put it somewhere and save it ... just in case. Life is too short to lose all that work just because when it's time to post, Steemit decides not to play.
(When you're a writer, there are lots of other reasons for saving your work in a form you can return to whenever you want. But I won't try to go into those here. Not losing it in the first place right off the bat is one of the best!)
Thank you for stopping by, @fred777bear. I appreciate your comment.
I agree, I edit / prep in word.
But I know many only write their posts in the markdown editor.
I only discovered people did this a couple of days ago. I was appalled! I would never ever consider composing something in Markdown, with that as my original and only copy -- although frankly, that explains a lot, if you know what I mean!!
They grew up on a diet of the facebook thing !!
I've lost 1 to many pieces of work / code over the years!
Hello @enchantedspirit
What brought me to your blog was the awesome curation you did in the Last unmentionable curation round up.
When it comes to saving Steemit posts, I first write my posts on my Sticky notes I installed on my Laptop, I add markdown tags as I write so that it will be easier for me to post.
I also copy out the post after adding the url of my Images because there is every possibility that my post will disappear, it is more of like a ritual to me now and I never lose a post all i have to do in the case of a glitch is to retype my title and tags.
@ogochukwu
I used Sticky Notes for a short time. I found them to be very easy to lose. Back to NoteTab for me. I wish there was a version for Linux. NoteTab is the best text editor bar none, in my not so humble opinion.
This just happened to me twice today and both times I used markdown to type up my post again. The third time I made a back up after losing it and I guess it made my posts different so it is like a third revision of my posts.
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by enchntdsprt (Don't start w/ me) from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews/crimsonclad, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
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yup
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;)
everyone please do not hit post on Steemit without copying your hard work elsewhere!
Even after the eveil gremlins have been eradicated! Save yourself the frustration, copy pasta today! ;)
img credz: pixabay.com
Nice, you got a 5.0% @minnowbooster upgoat, thanks to @catweasel
Want a boost? Minnowbooster's got your back!
There are many great tips in this post, so thanks for sharing your thoughts. A piece of my heart went out to @arbitrarykitten when I read her post also. My immediate recommendation is to use an external editor like Word or NoteTab, and if you do like to compose in Markdown like I do, check out HackMD, which is a markdown editor that saves your work in real time similar to Google Docs.
As far as copying and pasting, another helpful tip is to use a Clipboard manager like ClipDiary, which I reviewed in one of my latest posts about free software.
You do some incredible work with our group's curation posts, so I'm glad you take precautions to back everything up. It's a great habit to be in, and I've found that I do the same thing now that I know hard work can disappear in the blink of an eye.
Best wishes as you keep on curating! Thanks for all of your hard work!