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    • CommentAuthordavidac897
    • CommentTimeFeb 11th 2011
     
    I often write up questions for MO and then decide I want to come back to them a bit later to finish them. I always have to save a file on my computer with those questions, but it would be great if I could just click something like "save as draft" on MO.

    Maybe there should be a limit on the number of questions each person can have in drafts (5?), just so it doesn't take up too much space.

    I would imagine this isn't too hard to program.
    • CommentAuthorgilkalai
    • CommentTimeFeb 11th 2011
     
    This will be a great option! Both for problems and for answers.
  1.  

    Has anyone been keeping track of the fact that we do not have the ability to change the software like this?

  2.  

    You could create a patch for Scott's re-implementation.

    • CommentAuthorgilkalai
    • CommentTimeFeb 12th 2011
     
    There are theoretical ways to implement having drafts with even the present software. For questions one possibility is to add tag "drafts" and filter out the draft tagged questions as a default (or just suggest people to do it). This will allow to create drafts questions and only when they are done to undraft them. For answers it is possible to add an answer clearly marked as DRAFT and immediately delete it. Then when you edit it if you need to repost the answer you can immediately delete it again, untill it is ready. I do not recommend practicing these theoretical possibilities.
  3.  

    Uh, unless there's an outcry, I'm going to take the Algerian police line and announce that it's official policy that you should not use the delete-undelete trick to manage drafts. It would cause a number of problems that we just don't want to go near. If you want to write drafts, use your favorite text editor on your local computer!

    Maybe when alpha gets up and running I'll encourage people to go write their drafts there, as it will provide a good source of test traffic.

    • CommentAuthorMariano
    • CommentTimeFeb 13th 2011
     

    Is alpha online? Is the source available? Even simpler, what language is it written with?

    • CommentAuthorWillieWong
    • CommentTimeFeb 13th 2011
     

    @Mariano: let me refer you to this thread.

  4.  

    @Mariano, see that thread, but briefly:

    • Currently it's not online, maybe again in a week or two.
    • The source is available via mercurial from http://tqft.net/hg/mathoverflow/
    • It's mostly written Scala, using the Lift web framework.
    • CommentAuthorJason
    • CommentTimeMar 23rd 2011
     
    Can this feature not be implemented client-side via JavaScript cookies? Not that this would be particularly reliable because a user can delete cookies, but it might be a nice feature to add to prevent a person from losing what was typed in cases of browser crashes, etc.
    • CommentAuthorgrp
    • CommentTimeMar 23rd 2011
     
    For an immediate workaround, save your draft on faketestsite.stackexchange.com. I used that for some recent work.

    Gerhard "Was That The Masked Avenger?" Paseman, 2011.03.23