I remember the contests - I also remember not participating in any of them (not out of malice, mind - just that I'm lazy.) infinity10 called it, though - they did a site overhaul a long time back now; this wiped out old links, old/inactive accounts, and similar havoc. 

It happens, and the more years that pass, the greater the data loss. Unless you archive it on local disks, have local backups, and periodically checksum while you transfer the stuff to new media every couple of years? It'll disappear. As far as CG stuff, put it this way: I'd have an easier time finding old crap I posted on USENET back in the 1990s than I would finding old stuff I posted here (or DAZ, etc) but didn't have a local copy of.

Seriously - archive your stuff locally. If it wasn't for having local copies, everything I ever posted to PoserPros, 3D Commune, etc would've been lost to the ether at least a decade ago. Same with a lot of stuff that contentparasite used to sell, such as the NearMe figure.

Food for thought.