# Reading someone's reply while it's still in preview **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [May 29, 2003, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-someones-reply-while-its-still-in-preview/178203 "2003-05-29T05:38:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-someones-reply-while-its-still-in-preview/178203/1 "2003-05-29T05:38:13Z")
Is this possible? If so, how? ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-someones-reply-while-its-still-in-preview/178203/2 "2003-05-29T06:56:44Z")
Do you mean, when previewing your own reply, you see a new reply pop up in the thread that happened while you’d been composing your post? If so – yes, it happens a fair bit. You can’t really preview someone else’s reply. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-someones-reply-while-its-still-in-preview/178203/3 "2003-05-29T12:41:24Z")
I think he’s asking “can someone read what I’m typing/editing/previewing before I post it”, and the answer is “no”. Nothing is written to the database until you actually submit the post. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-someones-reply-while-its-still-in-preview/178203/4 "2003-05-29T13:11:25Z")
Well, if you happened to be standing behind the person typing and looking over his or her shoulder… ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-someones-reply-while-its-still-in-preview/178203/5 "2003-05-29T13:42:14Z")
Did anyone else, reading **MEBuckner** ’s post, just look over his shoulder? ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-someones-reply-while-its-still-in-preview/178203/6 "2003-05-29T14:33:34Z")
I _knew_ you were going to post that, **TTT**. It showed up in **MEBuckner** ’s preview a full 30 minutes before you even typed it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-someones-reply-while-its-still-in-preview/178203/7 "2003-05-29T23:35:32Z")
There might conceivably be some way that the administrators could monitor stuff being previewed - the post to be previewed is sent to the board server (rather than formatted locally), so they _probably_ could set up a process to intercept it and copy out to a text file or something, but it might involve hacking the board software and I can’t honestly believe they would have much inclination to wade through mountains of half-formed posts.