I have both good and bad news to report...
The bad news is that this website was recently target of a malicious database worm that has been spreading across the Internet.
You can read more here regarding the epidemic of legitimate website infections. Other recently infected websites include the Department of Homeland Security, the United Nations, and Walmart.
The attack corrupted all of the data in our database and attempted to infect users by exploiting vulnerabilities in various browser software.
This worm has infected hundreds of thousands of web pages across the Internet, so I highly recommend everyone scan their computers for malware, even if you have not visited PoetryVault recently. There are many free computer security tools available, such as Lavasoft Adaware and AVG Free Anti-Virus. Additionally, I strongly urge visitors with Adobe Flash or RealPlayer installed on their computers to check for available security updates.
I was able to restore a backup of our database. To the best of my knowledge, all poems submitted before May 24th, 2008 have have been safely recovered.
You may be wondering when PoetryVault will be making its return.
PoetryVault will not be returning. It was developed 8 years ago and lacks the necessary security to safely serve its users.
Why wasn't this written in the bad news section? Although PoetryVault will not be returning, the newly designed and highly secure ArtistVault.com will be returning in its place.
I am currently working to develop ArtistVault. The website will likely support only poetry submissions when it is initially released, but will eventually handle other types of submissions as well.
All currently submitted poems will be transferred to ArtistVault. However, in order to edit submissions or submit new ones, users may need to sign up for a new account. Users will initially need to verify ownership of their previous submissions by providing their password from PoetryVault.com.
When can we expect to see ArtistVault.com? I am doing my best to develop and deploy ArtistVault as quickly as possible, but a conservative estimate is at least 1 month. I am currently limited in my time and resources to develop ArtistVault due to a busy professional life, but it has become high priority.
I appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter. It is my goal to provide users with a safe environment to share and enjoy in the artistic expressions of others.
If you have any questions or wish to discuss the current situation, please write me at webmaster@poetryvault.com. I encourage your feedback.