Remember Diary-X, the ill-fated journalling site? Back in the day it had many thousands of users, all enjoying a slightly more enlightened diary experience than could be found on the likes of blogger and elsewhere - but then one day in 2006, Stephen Deken, DX's webmaster, had the horrible job of announcing that everything had been lost, in one catastrophic disk crash.

There were tears, recriminations, and about a million people muttering "backup" all at once. Then, when that faded, there were new hopes of a phoenix-like rise from the ashes by a project called Codexed, which had Stephen Deken on board, and which hoped to bring back DX's journalling system, if not its content. Then, for about two years, there was mostly silence, as nothing really happened at all, and it seemed as if the huge scale of the project had overwhelmed the few volunteers behind it.

Until now, that is. A chance visit to the site yesterday revealed that rather than being dead, Codexed is now in Alpha testing of its basic functions, and the spirit of Diary-X is very much alive again. Entry to the alpha test is by application, and I got my invitation code on the same day, so things appear to be in full swing - and while it's not quite the full glory of DX yet, it's certainly reminiscent. Good luck to them, I say.