Leaving & returning to the New Forum Topic page via the back button wipes data entered

[sutarionRA]

Describe the bug
When creating a forum post, data entered is lost when you navigate to a different page, such as clicking on a link in the post preview area. Prior to the new forum topic UI refresh, the data would be retained if you navigated away from the New Topic screen and then returned via the back button.

When doing this workflow today, the data is briefly visible before being replaced with a blank form.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Go to a forum section, such as https://retroachievements.org/viewforum.php?f=11
2. Click on Create New Topic
3. Enter a topic subject and some text in the main body. Include a link such as [game=1]
4. Click preview and click on the link.
5. Hit the Back browser button to return to the New Topic page.
6. Note that previously entered data appears for a brief moment, and is then replaced with a blank form

Expected behavior
Data entered into the subject and body should be retained so that accidental clicks do not result in the loss of data.

Screenshots

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Windows
• Browser: Chrome
• Version: 134.0.6998.89

Additional context
This same behavior occurs when editing an existing forum topic.

[wescopeland]

I've spent some time digging into this issue, and unfortunately I believe it's not trivially fixable without a mountain of code.

From a technical standpoint, react-hook-form is prepopulating default form values, and it has no awareness of what the browser believes should be the default from the back/forward cache.

What might be a good solution is to add a dirty form check to help mitigate users from accidentally wiping their posts via a preview navigation.