Totally unbelievable. 2 very good friends of mine (whose names both start with J… actually I am amazed that many of  my dearest friends have names that begin with J!) have called my attention to the 1st freebie of yesterday (the wordart) being not available for download with a stinky little message on it instead.

I checked out the link in total shock. I’m sure you’ve seen what it said if you had attempted to download the wordart freebie earlier. Because I consider you as my dearest friends, and dare I say, even family, with as much love and affection, I would like to share with you how I felt about the entire … what’s the word for it?…pain-in-the-derriere that happened today. Perhaps the best way to do this is to paste here the response I gave to my good friend on our playground’s board:

I have already sent an email and feedback form to 4shared support, asking them to shed some light on this. Since I have not yet heard back from them (and I know it is too soon for me to expect an answer), I have gone researching and trying to find how others have dealt with similar situations. 

Apparently, some designers who have experienced this have had 4shared support tell them that certain words and names are caught by automated filters in 4shared and are immediately removed if there is any slight risk of copyright infringement or illegal activity. Most times it has to do with pornographic stuff (heavens forbid!!!) so in that sense, J, you were right about the word/name of the author having something to do with it. Had I not placed her name on the file, the filters would not have caught it mistakenly and you would have been able to download the freebie without a hitch.

Initially, you know, I have to admit I was stupefied, dumbfounded, shocked. I take care of my name and my integrity, and to have a message like that on something I’ve made is uuuugh, indescribable torment for me. Then I went from shock to anger,/irritation,/annoyance, brought about by my failure to understand how this could’ve happened. But NOW. Now I think it’s unbelievably hilarious and crazy and unthinkable. Enough said.

 

So anyway, I took down the link. I can’t fix it immediately because I’m not home (out of town for a few days) and so I don’t have the actual wordart files on my laptop. I will change the filename and then upload it again once I’ve got everything fixed and there’s no risk of the most innocent thing as a file containing an author’s name (poor e.e.cummings) getting deleted for being possibly “pornographic”. (Can you still see me shaking my head with a look of disbelief on my face?)

 

I checked all the other freebies including those yet to come. They’re free of any such snafus. SIGH. I know better this time to put really simple one word names… though you know, given my sorta dense mind when it comes to green matters, I just very well may come up with a generic name that a filter may deem unacceptable. LOL! Hope it never ever happens again, though. Certainly not a happy experience. But definitely one that can make me into a better person if I only react with calm, peace, patience, forgiveness and… well, wisdom gained from experience?

Hugs again, and lots of gratitude!

The reason I’m leaving that post there to explain everything is because I am still shell-shocked by the experience and am totally confused and unsure whether I should just throw my head back and laugh heartily at how immensely schtoooopid this has turned out to be, that a simple name used with such innocence (it IS an innocent word, it’s a person’s name, for crying out loud!) (and a well-known poet at that!) (whose many works are most known because of their childish tone and playfulness!) (for crying out loud!!! again! and again!)… or if I should be furious, fuming, and foaming at the mouth over this catastrophe that for me has possibly laid a shadow of doubt in the minds of people who don’t really know me enough about my character and my integrity. Those who know me well enough, my family, my dearest friends, YOU… I know that you would know me better. I just wish all the others who may have stumbled across my freebie (through search engines? I don’t know) would too.

Well, it’s almost 3AM in these mountains where I type, The wind is blowing, the kids are all tucked warmly into bed, my dh is snoring his way to lala-land.. and here I am stressing over this. Unh-unh. Not anymore. I understand. And understanding is the first step towards forgiveness. And if you’re really, really lucky and sincere, at the end of the forgiveness phase, there is, mercifully and thankfully, along with the ability to know truth from fibs, the ability to laugh it all off and chalk it up to experience.

That last thing: that’s the place I want to be in right now. So I will post this, publish it, and call it a night. Maybe, just maybe, I may find myself laughing in my dreams. Thanks for hanging in with me through this, honeys.