Could it be designed in such a way that if you accidentally try to correct your Answer in the wrong box, it won't automatically disappear?

I don’t understand. Re-state the question?

Okay sorry. Let’s say you’re crafting a sincere, well-researched, and elegantly written answer that you’re pretty sure will get some lurve and help out the person who wrote the Great Question. You’re working on the text in the amber-colored box. But you’re almost done so you take a peek at the text in the LIGHT GREEN box, which contains the finished product. Then because you’re kind of goofy you try to delete something you want to improve, but you do so in the green box. Suddenly everything in the green box disappears.

Is there a way to keep this from happening (aside from doing your writing in the amber box, which is too hard for me to remember to do)?

The reason it happens seems to be that you hit the backspace button when not in a text box, meaning you’re using the backspace key as a shortcut in the browser, going back to the previous page. Depending on what browser you’re using you might be able to change the shortcut to another key. I don’t know if this would mess you up in too many other ways though.

Or you could do your writing somewhere else, in a word document or something, then copy and paste.

@susanc: Depending on your browser, you can just press the forward key and get your whole answer back.

But, considering this question, we’re going to try and put some safeguards in. Sorry. :(

@pete, looks like andrew says that’s right. Wow. To think that a declared pothead could teach me something so complex. I’m learning 2 things at once here. @andrew, thanks, it never occurred to me to reverse into forward because I didn’t know I had gone backward, that is, out. This is a whole new world for me. Please, no “sorry”.
Thanks, guys.

I wholeheartedly agree that the “Use the Backspace key to go back in your browser’s history” is about the dumbest damned thing I’ve seen.

It’s a browser convention that’s been around for a while. It’s not a function of the web site, and hence it’s not unique to Fluther. If nothing else, I’d like to see a pref whereby the user could toggle that “feature” off.

That said, I have seen where it appears to inconsistently implemented. If anyone can link to a detailed spec of how that’s supposed to work and the cases where it’s not, I’d appreciate learning more.