Yeah, modern browsers are great at not losing form data. When I hit this error I hit back, then reload, then resubmit with full confidence that my comment will be unharmed.
So HN doesn't bother me so much. It's the #$%# smartypants webapps that try to reinvent textareas in javascript that piss me off. I'm looking at you, Quora and new Gmail compose.
If the old ways work well enough, why bother to change?
I still call my Windows scripts .bat files (instead of .cmd, that's clearly for OS/2 programs).
It was only in the last three or four years that I stopped naming my files with all-uppercase names not longer than eight letters, with an extension not longer than three letters, to be sure they would be compatible with a FAT16 filesystem.
I'm rather distrustful of GUI's for doing things like moving or copying files.
I never drag-and-drop files into programs, partly because I seldom use GUI file managers, but mainly because most programs didn't support the metaphor when Windows 95 first came out, and I haven't bothered to check if things have gotten better yet.
Given these facts, you might find it surprising to learn that my age is less than 30.
Still and all, you can't help but notice how awesomely rock-solid browser textareas have gotten. I've actually had my laptop run out of charge and unceremoniously die on me in the midst of a humongous comment. Reboot, login, open browser, tabs all pop up -- and there's my comment. It's utterly amazing.
