Hey, 

I need to know if there's a way to recover a BUNCH of work I'd done writing up a character backstory.  I had been writing it on a work PC, and everything was great, then came home to my home PC where I had that character open, and a small bit of prior work I'd done showing in the character description.  Well, I reloaded the browser, and it's ONLY showing the text that had been up when I got on my home PC.  

Is there ANY way to recover all the work I'd put in?  I'm sick to think I'd lost it because the editor interface only saves what was last shown.

Please help!  Vorrakas is the character.

As Arenlor mentioned, once data is saved back to the server it will update what was there before. We generally recommend against opening the same character sheet in multiple tabs/windows to avoid this occurring, and for any long pieces of data to keep a backup externally. For example for my multiple page backstories (yes every character needs AT LEAST 4 pages), I have them in a Google doc and just put the URL to the doc in the DDB character sheet so I can easily reference.

Well it's not really a recommendation if it's not stated where this can happen is it? 

Like, at minimum, make the window have a warning to close it so that it will save.

Also, I really don't appreciate the flippantness of your response when seeking help for a obvious weakness in your system.  Like, why even have live editing if you don't have the ability to revert it to a previous state?  Wouldn't a better system be a confirmation of changes?  I'm now out a few hours work because of a few lines of code.  And worse than that, I poured a fair bit of heart and soul into it, and I get you making a joke about length, and suggest I use a different platform completely?  A platform, I might add, I don't have access to at work due to county policy.  

So no, this is not helpful, and really makes me angry that I've now subscribed to this platform for 2 years and bought almost all the source content to get mods making jokes at my expense.  Like, I legit cried about what had been lost.  Do you even get that?  How callous and capricious can you get?  

For what it's worth, I took Sorce's comment about every character needing at least 4 pages to be self-deprecating humor at their own expense, namely that Sorce always makes very long backstories, and has chosen to keep their backstory information in a google doc for that reason. I can understand your anger if you interpreted that as them making fun of you, especially when feeling frustrated at lots of work being lost. That really sincerely sucks :(

Quote from acegammer5 >>

Well it's not really a recommendation if it's not stated where this can happen is it? 

Like, at minimum, make the window have a warning to close it so that it will save.

Also, I really don't appreciate the flippantness of your response when seeking help for a obvious weakness in your system.  Like, why even have live editing if you don't have the ability to revert it to a previous state?  Wouldn't a better system be a confirmation of changes?  I'm now out a few hours work because of a few lines of code.  And worse than that, I poured a fair bit of heart and soul into it, and I get you making a joke about length, and suggest I use a different platform completely?  A platform, I might add, I don't have access to at work due to county policy.  

So no, this is not helpful, and really makes me angry that I've now subscribed to this platform for 2 years and bought almost all the source content to get mods making jokes at my expense.  Like, I legit cried about what had been lost.  Do you even get that?  How callous and capricious can you get?  

I do not believe Sorce was mocking you, and instead they were sharing a self deprecating insight into their own character creation process as a form of solidarity. No joke was being made at your expense

Additionally, they were explaining the source of the issue so, until a time comes where there is a solution, you can avoid this happening to you again. Also they provided their own approach as a hope of maybe aiding you.

It is not up to others to interpret how something is taken.  Your comments are not welcome as they defend his post while diminishing my pain and point of view.  

Not gonna lie, I've been pissed about this for a good 12hrs now.  1st, Source's poorly handled reply makes me realize just how unhelpful the support here is if the default is to say "It is the way it is, *here's a joke that makes light of how you're feeling", then I have people show up to defend him and tell me how I should be taking his reply. 

I'm sorry, but that's really shitty.  Telling someone in pain how they should feel about the people reacting and responding around them is really messed up.  It's not helpful, and it belittles their feelings.  The ONLY reply at this point that should be coming are apologies for hurt caused, and validation of how the wounded are feeling.  Anything less adds nothing but more hurt.

Customer service isn't hard, it just takes a decent amount of empathy.  Of which I've gotten very little here.  

Is there a way to refer the matter to IT to see if they can recover the data? Clearly mods aren't really going to be able to help with these sorts of technical issues, as evidenced by the replies. How should acegamer go about getting ahold of an actual IT person. It's a website - there has got to be IT support.

Unfortunately, as Sorce mentioned, the way the server stores the data means its unrecoverable. The system doesn't store version history for those kinds of fields; the data overhead for that would be phenomenal to say the least.

That's unfortunate. Hopefully devs will work on this problem so that this doesn't keep happening to people. Is there a way to report this glitch and ask for it to be fixed?

I have to say that editing the same field from two instances is less of a glitch and more user error. The alternative is to "lock" the fields currently open in another session, but that risks fields being locked due to unexpected exits from editors, and with browsers, editors can be exited in all kinds of ways that send no notice to the servers. Locking fields really only works in a more predictable environment and is common practice there.

Rule of thumb: Never have the same record open for editing in more than one place. Since it would likely cause more problems, web-based entry must be user responsibility on this point rather than server side control.

Quote from PirateDeloresTheStaggeringDrunk >>

That's unfortunate. Hopefully devs will work on this problem so that this doesn't keep happening to people. Is there a way to report this glitch and ask for it to be fixed?

As mentioned previously, having the same field being edited in two different locations is not advisable usage. As such, this isn't something that can be fixed; the system is responding how it's supposed to; saving the most recent input to the field. If you have the field open in two different locations, it'll save the last edited one.

This is something common across the board as a technical limitation of such software. I deal with it in my job; if I leave a field being edited on one tab and then forget and open it in another, going back to the first tab will overwrite what I've done in the second. It's something you have to build very specific architecture for if you want to avoid that involves a lot of additional overhead.

So here we are nearly 24hrs later, and still no apology from Source, and I'm still getting the same "It's the way it is, and you used it wrong" responses.  

I'm done.  You lot are useless, and your lack of empathy, from joking to insulting, is disgusting.  

Honestly, this could have been handled in like 2 lines.

"The system doesn't have that capability.  I'm sorry for your loss of work."  How hard would that have been?  For anyone? Seriously?

But no, it's been strung out for hours now and all I'm left with is animosity for Davyd and Source for how they've handled this.  Again, no sympathy, no empathy.  Just the company line time and again that "This is on you."

This forum system is garbage, and the mods need better customer service training.  

Hi acegammer5 - I'm sorry if you felt that I was making fun of you, I was not. As others have pointed out I was trying to assist with providing an example of how I avoid the situation myself (because I also have had the issue occur to me, because I also write long backstories for all my characters). At no point was it a joke or making fun of you, and I'm sorry of you thought it was, that was not the intention.

There is no way to recover your lost data. As mentioned, if you have a character sheet open in two locations, they are going to compete with one another. I can't be aware of where you are located, so was not aware of any restrictions of access to an external platform. It was a simple suggestion based on how myself and what I've seen other end users do - to avoid the very situation you have encountered, and my way of trying to show that I understand the frustration - I've experienced it myself.

I understand you are frustrated with the system - but as we have said yesterday, there is no way to recover the data. I don't know what more we could have said. If you have an issue with the way we explain things, then you are welcome to reach out to another moderator for assistance.

This community sucks, but I respect you finally replying and apologizing. As stated earlier, the reply certainly did not land well, and I appreciate you apologizing and not trying to further deflect it like others.

The others can get bent for all I care.  After your initial reply my anger stopped being about the system, and became how people were replying and what they were saying.  While you may not have intended offense, they certainly did.

I won't be using the forums again for assistance.  Obviously there are major issues with how mods are trained to reply.  And like most forum communities, the population is only as good as the mods.

Hi there acegammer5,

I'm sorry to hear about the experience you've been having with our platform these past two days. I've definitely been there on losing a great backstory over the limitations of technology, and it absolutely awful, I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Tone is hard enough to get through in text, but adding in the delivery of bad news on top of it, and I can absolutely see your perspective on the discussion in this thread. I hope that Sorce's most recent post helps to clear up his intent, but know that I don't believe that makes your understanding or reaction any less valid. I respect how you must feel in this situation, and I hope we have a chance to clear things up.

I've responded to your Support ticket with more information, and I welcome you to discuss with me further over that ticket, or you're welcome to message me directly here on the forums if you prefer! I appreciate you giving us the opportunity to make this situation as right as we can.

For now, I'm going to lock this thread as the initial issue is unfortunately not something within our power to resolve. I've passed feedback about your experience on to the team, and as I've said, I am happy to continue a dialogue with you so that we can come to an acceptable resolution.

Thank you, and all the best,
Mellie Doucette