In case anyone is interested, the Sowpub forum is archived in 3 ways...
1. My web host does a regular backup. Sowpub is now running on a new computer, and the site has been restored from my web host's backup.
2. I do my own backups of the database that the forum is based on. At worst, I could "recreate" the forum from this backup. (However, I should do these backups more often, as my most recent one was from about 2 1/2 months ago! I plan to do another backup in the coming week...)
3. I also have an "email archive" of all recent posts, as they are posted. (This only includes what a post looks like when it's first posted - so any later editing is isn't included.) It's from this archive that I'm putting up the "restored" posts...
It's good to be a little paranoid, sometimes, just to be safe...
I guess a good "lesson" in this is - it's good to have backups (even multiple backups) if you do any kind of work using computers!
Cheers,
Dien