This is about the most recent version of LibreOffice on Windows 10. I can’t speak for other versions.

My daughter worked hard on her social studies essay. I type things in for her because she’s a really bad typist, but she tells me what to write… but I didn’t remember to manually save her social studies essay yesterday, and for some reason the ThinkPad rebooted, LibreOffice crashed and we lost the whole thing… because autosave was not automatically on when I installed it.

No, recovery didn’t work. We just got a blank file.

I rewrote it for her based on the information we had and what I remembered and tried to make it sound like what a 13-year-old would write because it was basically my fault and she did do the work. I did have her sit with me as I wrote it in case she didn’t like something I wrote, but it was sort of cheating. I’m okay with that cheating since I know she worked hard on it.

First, though, I went into the settings and turned on autosave.

I like LibreOffice, but why the hell is that not on automatically? Honestly, I don’t really understand why someone wouldn’t want their documents autosaved, but I’m pretty sure most people would want that.

This isn’t fucking 1993. I shouldn’t have to remember to save a document anymore and it shouldn’t be lost forever because of it.

Like I said, I like LibreOffice. I don’t really want to trust documents to Microsoft or Google. But this was really annoying.

  • @hightrix
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    89 months ago

    Look at how you’ve handled this situation so far. Seriously, step back and take a look at it.

    First, we can skip the typing for her because that’s been discussed to death. But then, when you found the mistake, you immediately started typing again and even called it cheating because you were trying to sound like a 13 yr old girl. You are teaching her that using any means necessary to get a good grade is acceptable.

    Next, you are trying to blame the software and not take responsibility for your mistake. This is teaching her not to take responsibility but to instead find something else to blame for mistakes.

    No, you should not punish her for your mistake, but you should instead teach her how to handle mistakes.

    I guarantee that this will happen to her in the future when she is typing her own work. She will get mad, blame the software, then cheat to get a good grade. This is what you’ve taught her.

    • Flying SquidOP
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      9 months ago

      No, you should not punish her for your mistake, but you should instead teach her how to handle mistakes.

      I’m pretty sure I did by telling her I fucked up, apologizing and rewriting the essay. Which is what she would have been expected to do if she had fucked up.

      Also, when you say I did not take responsibility for my mistake, are you not including the part of my post where I wrote:

      it was basically my fault

      Or did you just not read it?

      I really don’t understand why you think me taking responsibility for my error and rectifying it teaches her a lesson that you should cheat to get a good grade. Because as far as I can tell, you keep suggesting that I should punish her for my mistake and make her rewrite it. Otherwise, what is your point here?

      • @hightrix
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        59 months ago

        Yes. You should have made her sit with you and redo the entire assignment. Not as punishment, but as rectifying the mistake as she would have had to do had she been the typist.

        Treat it as a learning moment and not as punishment.

        • rudyharrelson
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          19 months ago

          OP already made it a learning moment. He told his kid it was his fault and he’d take responsibility for it. The kid also learned her parent has humility and has her back when things go wrong.

          Sure, you can go the other route and have her re-write it, but I don’t think that would’ve been as good a learning experience for the kid. “Life sucks sometimes kiddo. Sometimes you do nothing wrong and still get saddled with extra work and strife.” The kid’s 13. Give em a break, Red Forman.

        • @[email protected]
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          19 months ago

          She already learned that lesson by watching her dad fuck up, then fix the problem with his own effort. If he made her sit down and do the whole thing over again she would’ve instead learned a lesson by watching her dad fuck up, then fix it by making it someone else’s problem.

        • Flying SquidOP
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          09 months ago

          You mean like when I said in my original post:

          I did have her sit with me

          First you claim I didn’t take responsibility, which I did, now you’re saying I should have had her sit with me, which I did.

          Did you read my post at all?

          And you still haven’t explained to me how me taking responsibility for my mistake, apologizing for it and then fixing the problem myself teachers her to cheat in order to get a good grade. Can you please explain that?

          • @hightrix
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            29 months ago

            Ok. I’ll try to put it more simply for you.

            • She dictated her essay
            • you typed her essay
            • her essay wasn’t saved and got deleted
            • you type your version of her essay
            • she turned in/will turn in your essay

            The essay she is going to submit is not her words but yours.