I dug through my old files, and I do have a copy of the mxcontrol database from the 18th august (several copies from that date actually) and possibly the 28th august (have to confirm that one but do have a file with that as the creation date and no date in the filename), i think that should include most of the ones that were on mxcontrol, so any posted there before that date should be recoverable from that backup
there is also the possibility that the posts weren't removed from sourceforge and the database there is still in one piece in which case the whole lot may be recoverable from there
currently the main priority is getting hold of bender to see what he has to say about it - none of us has yet spoken to him, with any luck he'll say "here's a copy of the last database, take the lot and do whatever you want with it" (or something along those lines), if he doesn't say that then we'll have to see what happens about them