Warning: Backing up your iWeb 'Domain' file will not save you.

Question

Here's the transcript from my chat with a MobilMe Support Rep. after losing (they simply disappeared) all of my blog's very valuable comments (hundreds), for nearly two years of blog entries.
I have many backed up 'domain' files, and each shows the comments that have been received and saved for all the entries when iWeb first starts up. But then, for some reason iWeb scrubs them (they just disappear) and when I "Publish All" to the web, the entries are published but not the comments attached.
Read MobilMe's response and consider yourselves warned. Backups won't save you. They simply won't. And yet . . . I was actually told I should have backed up. When I told my tech rep I had, then the reality of the situation came out. This is amazing to me.
Read on . . .
You are chatting with Omran A, a MobileMe Support Representative
Hi, my name is Omran A. Welcome to Apple!
Omran A: How are you?
Omran A: I see that you have lost your comments.
Omran A: Correct?
Perry: Yes. Phone just rang, so my responses will be a bit slow for a few
Omran A: I apologize for the inconvenience.
Omran A: Have you upgraded iWeb recently?
Perry: Yes, Omran, is there any way to retrieve them?
Omran A: I am sorry this has happened to you. Losing comments tend to happen when upgrading iweb:
Perry: I'm running the latest version, and have been since it came out. Had problems with people even leaving comments for a while, as did everyone who was using iWeb, but that had become an issue of the past for a few months as memory serves.
Omran A: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2094
Omran A: Please let me know if you can view the link
Perry: We are well past the info in this upgrade doc. Upgraded long ago
Perry: Yes, I've got it up
Omran A: I just wanted to show you that upgrading iWeb tends to delete comments
Perry: I am at step 6, contact MobilMe support.
Omran A: Can you please give me a link to your site?
Perry: http://web.me.com/davidperryphoto1/GardenBlog/APhotographers_Garden_Blog/A_Photographers_GardenBlog.html
Omran A: Can you please give me a link to your site?
Omran A: Thank you
Omran A: Please hold while I do some investigation
Omran A: Did your comments get deleted after updating to iWeb 2.0 or did happen month after that?
Perry: More than a month afterward. Just a week or so ago
Omran A: OK
Omran A: Thank you
Omran A: Please hold while I do some further investigation
Perry: Still there?
Omran A: Yes
Omran A: I am still performing a investigation.
Omran A: Please give me a few more minutes.
Perry: Thanks. I'll just keep on working here...
Omran A: Thank you for your patience
Omran A: I am terribly sorry. I search all over the servers and I am not able to recover your comments.
Omran A: I suggest backing up comments regularly.
Omran A: I suggest backing up comments regularly.
Perry: When I start up iWeb with my saved "domain" file, I see the comments, but then, within moments, the program scrubs them, because, apparently they are no longer out there on the web. Is there anyway to recapture them from the saved domain file?
Perry: How the heck do I back up my comments if they are stored in some obscure place on one of your servers and seperate from my website?
Omran A: So you see them and then they disappear
Perry: yes
Omran A: OK
Omran A: I believe the following link shows you how to backup to save comments
Omran A: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2094
Perry: Omran, look. I have a backed up copy of my domain, just as they direct. When I start up iWeb with this file, I see the saved comments. But when I publish all, as directed, I get the blog but I get no comments published. That's why you and I are talking. I've apparently got the comments still in some form in my saved domain, but the program, or .ME scrubs them. What the **** good does the backed up file do me if I can't get Mobil Me to recognize the comments and re-post them? This is my issue.
Omran A: OK
Omran A: I am sorry I did not fully understand you
Omran A: One moment please.
Omran A: I am sorry even though you are able to see the comments for a split second. You can not recover them from the domain file.
Omran A: Just for clarification
Perry: Can we agree that this is a gigantic "cluster #@$*" and that this wonderful new opportunity presented us in the form of MobilMe has been very painful and expensive for many of your loyal customers?
Omran A: You see the comments with the domain file you backed up in iweb but can not see them once you published them to the internet, correct?
Perry: correct.
Omran A: Do they disappear in iWeb ?
Perry: But the program or something tends to scrub them within a minute or so of the program starting up. They are there, in all the entries dating all the way back, and then they are not. They just disappear.
Omran A: I am sorry the domain is there but We can not recover the comments. I am sorry that you have had a bad experience with MobileMe. We have given our loyal customers a 90 day extension for your patience with us.
Perry: Do you or anyone there know of a resource that I can send the domain file to take it apart and retrieve the comments. Someone has to know how to burrow into the file and pull that stuff. Anybody there know of a resource?
Omran A: Let me check
Omran A: I just checked with my supervisor and he checked the servers and said there is no way to recover your comments.
Omran A: My sincere apologies. I understand loosing comments that span for two years is very sad.
Omran A: If there was a way I would let you know.
Omran A: I am sorry that you experience with MobileMe has not been that great, you may leave a feedback and let us know what issues has frustrated you
Omran A: MobileMe feedback
Omran A: Upper manager reads the feeback
Omran A: Feedback
Perry: Thanks to you personally Omran for your efforts. I'll be saving and perhaps publishing this dialogue between us on the blog as a warning to others, along with a few choice words and pictures illustrating my newly formed opinion of MobilMe. Watch for it.
Omran A: If you select the blue close button and you will receive a survey.
Omran A: Please note that the survey reflects only me.
Omran A: I am sorry that I was not able to help you.
Perry: NO worries. Thanks!
Omran A: If you create the blog can you change my name to something else
Omran A: It would be horrible to have people coming in and saying oh no it is you!
Perry: Why, you were awesome. It is iWeb and this new, rammed down our throats long before it should have been, MobilMe that is the problem, not you. You were a real peach.
Omran A: Thank you Perry
Omran A: Thank you for chatting and I hope MobileMe services improve to meet your needs
Omran A: And have a great day
Perry: You can be certain that I do too! Thanks again!

Answer 1

Yeah, if your Domain won't fit on a CD or you don't have space to save it, at LEAST set up Backup to annoy you at regular intervals. Once you've clicked cancel a few times due to wanting to get something else done, perhaps it will begin to wear on your psyche and guilt you into going ahead and doing it!