Not really... It only despawns if someone is within that chunk... Cause I died 7k from spawn... Went all the way back... then found my stuff after 30 minutes of travelling!
http://empireminecraft.com/threads/scheduled-downtime-for-august-7th-2012.13124/ Sorry to hear about your stuff, there is a chance that it won't go though, check when they're on.
Heh; I'm half-way up a 100-tall tower ladder, holding on, over lots of lava. Note to self: remember to press SHIFT as soon as I rejoin
*servers are down so goes outside* Oh my god! What is this gigantic blazing ball of yellow? And why do my eyes hurt when I look at it...