I just did something stupid: I edited a page using a previous document as a template. Then I saved the previous document as its old name, not as the new file.

In other words I lost what was a very nice piece of work.

But:

1) I had a copy of it elsewhere in a directory where I could have external people load my webpage (hosting it myself)

and

2) I just posted said article in my livejournal

IF I had not done #2 AND I had decided to just host it from the first folder rather than make a copy, I would've lost something that took me a while to think up, and no amount of re-writes would get the same mental charm I had to begin with.

So backup your work no matter what. Also to give this a topic: have you ever lost a great deal of work because of not doing something like SAVING EVERY FIVE SECONDS or like me, accidentally deleting something or overwriting it?