Any global moderator can download an encrypted bitcointalk database backup, and some of them probably regularly do. Any admin, or past admin can decrypt those backups to keep this forum running, or move it to a new domain. If theymos died one of the other admins could keep bitcointalk running. Not that theymos is likely to die soon, his profile says he's 25.
In another thread you said that database dumps can be downloaded by other admins, but only you, Gavin, Satoshi and Sirius can decrypt them.
What does "direct database access" refer to? Any admin can query the db directly and e.g. dump it and/or read PMs?
It's not about ST being an admin now; it's just a general question which popped up in my mind when I read this announcement.
Global moderators can download the encrypted database backups. Admins and past admins (Gavin, Satoshi, Sirius, me, and now justmoon) can decrypt them -- they therefore have complete access to the database and can read PMs, etc. Justmoon and I can also query the live database.
How many admins do we have on bitcointalk now?
Two. Gavin recently decided to stop being an admin.