How web applications irritate users

I think I’m going to be sick. I can’t believe I have the energy to even type this message out. Be forewarned, this is going to be a major rant.

I’m writing a howto explaining using google analytics to track outgoing links. A couple times through the article I hit the preview button to see how I was doing (mostly to ensure the newly installed markdown plugin was working). After the article was about half done, I hit a zone and the words just started flowing. I got nearly done with the article and hit some keyboard shortcut on accident… no idea what I did. The page refreshed and I was starting at my blog’s homepage.

I started to panic… I thought, its OK, I can just hit back and it’ll be still there. I hit back and up popped that awful message… “this page contains post data, hit OK to resubmit your form…” I knew then that my data was gone. The form would post and I’d be looking at the data I’d submitted last time I hit the preview button.

I hit cancel and looked for another alternative. However, it was for naught. I hit my back button, hit OK to resubmit the form and hoped that I would be wrong. Alas, exactly what I’d expected happened. Half my article was gone. :-(

Shame on Drupal for not redirecting after posts. Shame on me for not hitting preview more often. Shame on me for even composting a lengthy article in a web application.

I’m going to bed… I suspect I’ll dream of content management systems with sharp teeth chasing me through the night.

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