While that really, really sucks for the team (suggestion: take your latest count and just keep a manual tally of the new messages, maybe?) the final point they

While that really, really sucks for the team (suggestion: take your latest count and just keep a manual tally of the new messages, maybe?) the final point they make is something that needs to be stressed over and over again. Don't trust third-parties to care about your data. They may have backup strategies in place or they might not. No one is going to care as much about your data as you do and you should treat every piece of data as if you have the only copy of it. If it's important to you, then you are ultimately responsible for it.