Capistrano on media temple - uploaded files deleting

I’m using capistrano on media temple and I have files that I’m
uploading. Every time I deploy capistrano is getting a new version
which wipes out my uploaded files.

I found this:

http://blog.vixiom.com/2007/03/13/stop-uploaded-files-getting-deleted-with-capistrano/

and tried out the suggested code, but it isn’t working. Do I need to
add some sort of permssions? Has anyone used this strategy?