The owner of JournalSpace.com has posted an update to the site (screen shot for posterity) giving more information about what happened.
Apparently the IT guy who liked to tell people how smart he was decided to rely on RAID as a backup for the database, but had automated backups of the web servers. He was apparently caught steeling from the company and wiped out the SQL database on his way out the door.
Apparently my suspicions were correct and it wasn’t a system problem, but a person who deleted the data.
Andrew Hart posted a note on how some of the users are able to get there data back using the Google cache. I tried using the Internet Wayback Machine but apparently JournalSpace.com was set to not allow it to be archived.
I would recommend to the owner of the site that the contact the local police department and file a report. While company employees can’t be held liable for stupidity, intentionally destroying the company we can be held liable for.
Denis Gobo posted an update as well, as I’m sure others did as well.
Denny
UPDATE: I forgot to include that I’m following the JournalSpace.com user on twitter so that I can keep abreast of new updates.
SECOND UPDATE: My horrible spelling was pointed out to me, so I’ve corrected this. Apparently Firefox didn’t pickup the spelling problems the first time around.