@&#$%¢§¶€!!! May 12, 2010 2:14 PM   Subscribe

Pony Request: MeMail Auto-Save Function?

I was finishing up a very lengthy MeMail this afternoon when my browser crashed and took my manifesto with it. So, I'd like to request some sort of Auto-Save function, a la Google Mail. Would this be terribly difficult to implement?
posted by zarq to Feature Requests at 2:14 PM (17 comments total)

We're pretty much not going to add any functionality to MeMail. I'm pretty sure Firefox has this functionality either built in or available as an add-on.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:18 PM on May 12, 2010


Yeah, it's frustrating but if you go over a couple of paragraphs and think you'll be miffed if you lose your message - save it locally or draft it in gmail or something. I've had the same thing happen and it's what I do when working on stuff.
posted by loquacious at 2:20 PM on May 12, 2010


Dude, if you have something to say to me, you can just toss a brick through my window like you usually do. Long manifestos are not necessary, and it's a hell of a lot harder to accidentally lose a brick anyway.
posted by koeselitz at 2:21 PM on May 12, 2010 [1 favorite]


OK. I can and will switch to Firefox.

Does anyone reading this happen to know if I'll need to install a plugin or not? This has happened to me before with FPP's, but never with something so lengthy. Highly frustrating. :(
posted by zarq at 2:22 PM on May 12, 2010


Lazarus adds this option to Firefox. If you're to the point where you're writing long messages in MeMail, it might be good to switch to a real email client. MeFi Mail could very easily turn into a race to duplicate GMail, and we're not going to do that when it's fairly easy to switch over to something like GMail.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:23 PM on May 12, 2010 [1 favorite]


Yeah, it's frustrating but if you go over a couple of paragraphs and think you'll be miffed if you lose your message - save it locally or draft it in gmail or something. I've had the same thing happen and it's what I do when working on stuff.

Wish I had. I usually get caught up in the moment and never remember to cut and paste. :(
posted by zarq at 2:23 PM on May 12, 2010


Lazarus adds this option to Firefox.

Thank you!! That's fantastic.

If you're to the point where you're writing long messages in MeMail, it might be good to switch to a real email client. That feature could very easily turn into a race to duplicate GMail, and we're not going to do that when it's fairly easy to switch over to something like GMail.

Good point. I'll do that. Thanks.

Ironically, I never really use MeMail, and now that I've turned on notifications I have this huge backlog of emails (50+) I'm trying to catch up on and answer. Folks probably think I'm rude as hell, because their mails came in and I never responded.
posted by zarq at 2:27 PM on May 12, 2010


I'm pretty sure Firefox has this functionality either built in or available as an add-on.

Firefox's session restore is usually stellar, but it has trouble recovering previewed content. This has happened to me while writing FPPs more than once, and it probably happens with MeMail, too.

There are extensions and Greasemonkey scripts out there that can save stuff like this more robustly, but it would be nice if the way Metafilter handles previewed content could be tweaked to play nice with session restore by default. Whenever I've used it in the past, it just leaves me with an error message when trying to load that "post_preview.mefi" URL.

(Also: repeating my humble wish for basic formatting options in MeMail. Nothing fancy -- even just hyperlink capability would be great! It's so awkward having to link to everything in standalone lines.)
posted by Rhaomi at 2:32 PM on May 12, 2010


Came in to second the Lazarus rec; I use it on Livejournal all the time because I live in 2001.
posted by NoraReed at 2:38 PM on May 12, 2010


I have an LJ... that I haven't updated in a while now. But it will definitely come in handy there. :)
posted by zarq at 2:39 PM on May 12, 2010


I've started getting into the habit of hitting Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C before clicking "post" on anything that took me more than a few seconds to write, or when I'm posting to anything particularly unreliable (COUGHfacebookHACK). Very quick and easy fix, and so long as you're not constantly copying and pasting stuff around you don't need to paste it anywhere else either.
posted by ZsigE at 2:44 PM on May 12, 2010


Dude, if you have something to say to me, you can just toss a brick through my window like you usually do. Long manifestos are not necessary, and it's a hell of a lot harder to accidentally lose a brick anyway.

I'm experimenting with Molotov cocktails. :)
posted by zarq at 2:49 PM on May 12, 2010 [1 favorite]


Wait there are, like, lengthy discussions occurring through MeMail? I just use it for sex jokes.

despite the cavalier nature of this comment, it's meant pretty much in all earnestness
posted by shakespeherian at 3:01 PM on May 12, 2010


GIVE TO ME YOUR SEXY SEX JOKES

ALSO BEER IS AWESOME

i regret nothing
posted by elizardbits at 3:47 PM on May 12, 2010 [1 favorite]


If anyone wants to write me lengthy Memails, I promise to protect your browser from crashes and miscellaneous acts of god *


* Offer void in case of rapture.
posted by special-k at 6:56 PM on May 12, 2010


took my manifesto with it


I'm not a psych student, but I did take a intro-to-intro psychology last semester. It was a great class in which our professor drilled 2 things repeatedly into our heads:
1)If anyone threatens to commit suicide, call the police. Better to have the 5-0 show up when there isn't a problem than to have them not show up and have someone actually off themselves. I actually had to put this knowledge to use 3 weeks after the semester ended. Thanks, Dr. M - that could have been a bad situation if not for your class.

2) Only crazy people write manifestos.
posted by niles at 9:00 PM on May 12, 2010


zarq, if you were writing to me, I still haven't received the MeMail yet.

I keep checking and it's still not there.
posted by yeti at 1:20 PM on May 13, 2010


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