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Didn't there use to be a grace period of 5 minutes after a question was closed where answers could still be submitted, but where one can't start writing an answer? If there wasn't (and I have just dreamed that the feature existed), shouldn't there be?

I was almost done writing a medium-long answer to Why is there no Nobel Prize in math when I got a notification that the question had been closed and I couldn't submit it. This was, according to the site, only 2 minutes after the closure.

(It is not my intention to discuss whether this question should have been closed. I thought it was a reasonable enough question that we should provide an answer. But that was before the asker added boldface lines to his question with subjective arguments that there should have been a Nobel in math).

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    $\begingroup$ I ran into the same problem a few minutes ago. Spent 15 minutes crafting an answer, only to have it vanish. Very frustrating. $\endgroup$
    – Rick Decker
    Commented Jul 12, 2012 at 0:50
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    $\begingroup$ @Rick This has happened to me countless times. I think it is one of the most annoying aspects of the software platform. Given that it highly discourages many valued members, I am baffled why they don't fix it so that answers started before closure can be posted. $\endgroup$
    – Bill Dubuque Mod
    Commented Jul 12, 2012 at 14:47
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    $\begingroup$ I experienced this recently with this question: math.stackexchange.com/questions/1901642/…, following which the asker reposted (I didn't ask him to do that) the question here: math.stackexchange.com/questions/1901691/… and I gratefully entered my answer before the new thread got locked. Unfortunately, this has engendered a little argument in the comments. I think the grace period is very important, and perhaps it should take the form of a timer you can keep clicking to get an extension to put the finishing touches. $\endgroup$
    – Deepak
    Commented Aug 26, 2016 at 2:03

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There is (was?) a grace period, but there's a small part of its operation which you missed. For reference, see this discussion.

The grace period (from the above link, 4 hours) kicks in only when:

  • The question is closed.
  • You started composing an answer before the question was closed.
  • And the client-side notification telling you that the question was closed (and locking out the submit button) fails (for whatever reason: network connectivity, database problems, etc.)

In your description you clearly received the client-side notification. Which means that the grace period no longer applies.

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    $\begingroup$ Yes, that explains my experience. Anyone have some client-side magic that will block the notifications such that one doesn't risk having rugs pulled out under one's answers like that? $\endgroup$
    – hmakholm left over Monica
    Commented Jul 12, 2012 at 10:34
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    $\begingroup$ @HenningMakholm Temporarily disable Javascript. The web developer toolbar for Firefox has an easy command for that, for example. $\endgroup$
    – Zhen Lin
    Commented Jul 13, 2012 at 2:04
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    $\begingroup$ @ZhenLin: Well, that would also disable the preview. Always editing answers blind because the questions might be closed at some time would be a worse cure than the disease here. $\endgroup$
    – hmakholm left over Monica
    Commented Jul 13, 2012 at 10:41
  • $\begingroup$ @HenningMakholm Maybe also enable Chatjax! Maybe that requires javascript :( $\endgroup$
    – Robert Frost
    Commented Aug 16, 2018 at 19:27

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