[Will Brownsberger]

My office team is complaining that they can’t save topics in draft.

I thought it must be a bug, but tracked it down to very deliberate code in topics.js.

jQuery( document ).ready( function() {
  jQuery( '#misc-publishing-actions' ).find( '.misc-pub-section' ).first().remove();
  jQuery( '#save-action' ).remove();
} );

I can’t find any reference to problems in the forums — is this just a policy choice or screen simplification? Or is there a reason why I should not just comment out that code?

I’ve tested the topics listings and statistics with the code commented out and saving drafts and all appears to perform correctly.

Some guidance from developers would be much appreciated.

NOTE: I posted this on January 17, 2014 but it took a publication date 18 months earlier. This is a repost on January 18, 2014.

[Lynqoid]

Drafts for forums is kind of against what they are for, you send your message into the discussion at the point you arrived at the discussion. If you save a draft then publish it later it could be irrelevant at that point. You could be using bbPress for something different than a forum, but it is effectively forum software.

Not sure if anyone else has any differing opinions on this?

[Tecca]

Most forum software have a draft button. A good way to use it would be if you wanted to make a topic but not post it until later (maybe when it becomes more relevant, such as after an event happened real-world), or if you get caught up with time and don’t want to lose your work.

I don’t see how it’d be that useful for replies, but the feature is perfect if it auto-saves a draft for you so you don’t lose your work, as some replies can be fairly lengthy. I know IPBoard and some of the other big boys have this feature.

Overall I think there are more advantages than disadvantages of having a draft button.

[Will Brownsberger]

I’m a state legislator and we use bbpress as a constituent communication vehicle. We publish statements about legislative issue as “topics” so that people can give us feedback. In the course of preparing those statements it is essential to save work in progress as draft.