This post is for Chicago Indymedia readers who might have questions, complaints, requests, or comments about the recent website downtime. Why?

Because on November 17, 2004, the web server that hosts Chicago Indymedia and roughly seven other Indymedia sites failed. The technical failure was severe, the disks are not yet fully recovered -- and our users and contributors have questions and concerns.

Happily, as of December 1, we're back online on a new server after much heroic effort from our local and global Indymedia volunteer techs. Much of the delay in getting back online was caused by difficulties in recovering media files, and while our techs are still working to restore as many of these files as possible, some stories and photos may be permanently hosed, and the site may run slow for a while. Dammit.

We deeply regret any inconvenience this may have caused our many users, supporters and contributors, and are grateful to you all for your support and concern. We value the contributions of all of you -- you're the backbone of Indymedia -- and want everyone to have the opportunity to read and see your content. So if stuff you posted is missing -- especially photos -- please feel free to repost them to the media gallery via the hotkey 'upload media.' Thanks for bearing with us through this trying time, as we continue to work out the kinks on our new server.

NEW FIXES/UPDATES, Monday, December 6:

As of Monday, December 6, we have FIXED the 'upload media' section, so start slapping your photos/graphics/flyers/etc. up on the site.

Also, we have FIXED the razorwire feature, meaning we can now center panel calendar listings and notices again, so slap up those urgent calls to action.

Questions? Comments? Great thoughts? Add them below.