I'm reminded of a startup that was bought by HP to host photos. Eventually, there was nobody running the service. It was running, but just because the servers were stable and self-sufficient. Money was coming in, but nobody had time allocated to address the site beyond cashing checks. Someone was nice enough to post a note somewhere (showed up on HN) suggesting users get data out while they could.

The point is: when a service collapses to a certain level, it's done. Yes, great if someone can pitch in to help users recover the loss. In the example given and ranted at in the article, be thankful the service was still running and there was at least a "download" button.