Writer's Cafe...THE END.

I'm pissed as f**k. This is how I feel. Don't like it? Take a hike.

 

Let’s see…how do I start this?

 

I am angry beyond words, hurt beyond belief. It feels as if someone just murdered my eventual kid right before my eyes, while I couldn’t do a goddamn thing to stop it or look away from it. I’m gonna make my thoughts on this sorry s**t known despite this feeling of terrible helplessness, though, whether anyone likes it or not. I don’t give a f**k about delicate dispositions. Not anymore. F**k your “oh my God”s and your “well, I never”s. You don’t want to hear a balls to the wall honest account of human feelings when it comes to this s**t, turn your head. Go away.

 

First off, f**k your mistake, Charlie. F**k it, kill it dead, and walk all over it. Piss on it. Everyone is entitled to make mistakes, but people like you, people who hold the souls of other, less powerful people in their hands…mothafucka, you aint allowed to make mistakes of this magnitude, you son of a b***h.

 

That’s right, I said it.

 

Like thousands of other people here, I’ve lost damn near everything to this fucked up “mistake” you made. Totally irreplaceable things. Like others, I got too comfortable with the site (which was the intended goal right from the start) after a while and started putting off backing my work up, since I didn’t see any reason to rush the matter. I’d grown to trust the site’s overseers, you see. I gave them my stupid goddamn baby trust without a second thought after a little while.

 

“You should’ve known better than to have things posted here that weren’t backed up” some might say. To that, I say f**k you. Great big middle finger to you a******s. Charlie is allowed a “mistake”, yet those of us who lost so f*****g much aren’t? Was it wrong to take comfort in the then-fact that the site was being taken care of and run responsibly by a capable human being? No, it wasn’t. That's what most sensible people call simple human nature. 

 

 

 

I’m sitting here before my pc, blood boiling, writing this s**t, yet, I can’t feel my soul. That’s right. It’s as if someone took my heart, my soul, between their hands and crushed it into nothing. Anyone here, most of us here, can understand that. That flip a*s, nonchalant “apology” you sent out? You can stick it up your a*s, you tactless b***h. F**k you, because flimsy pretend s**t like that never heals anything. I lost over 200 pieces of my art, of my craft, of the personal trek that was the evolution of me as a writer, a man, as an African American, as a human being. Two years of my life…f****n gone, just like that. All thanks to a stupid b*****d who claims to have made a mistake with a mouse and an itchy finger. Bullshit.

 

There are those who are saying that “we will stand together, stand tall, build anew, we shall get through this”…all well and good for you people, with all that empty new age bullshit, who probably lost nothing worth a goddamn. A piece or two. Things you probably didn’t care all that much about from the start. I’ve been here for two years, though, longer than the vast majority of you with the high and mighty opinions and the clever jabs at those of us who trusted this s**t enough to put off saving s**t as we shoulda been doing. That amount of time on a site like this makes you trust…it makes you feel as if nothing will go wrong, nothing like this, because, well, when has it ever? Being here for a while made me insanely comfortable, just as it did to others.

 

I should’ve been saving my s**t, I’ll admit that, but I know a man who lost 300 pieces of his work, for God’s sake, all because he, like me, trusted with his heart and passion instead of his common sense. It’s that way all over the world right now, all because of one b*****d’s simple “mistake”. You’re certifiable as far as I’m concerned if you stay with this site, now. F**k your mistake, man. Why wasn’t all of this backed up from the start? This aint one person’s work…this is the work and world of thousands of thinking, feeling, and talented human beings. For you to gamble with such things is insane.  I didn’t get the tiniest sense of remorse from that hack’s idea of an apology you sent out. You didn’t mean a damned thing you said in it. “Your art is gone, never to be seen again, but I’ve saved your pictures, friend lists, and reviews". What the f**k is wrong with your mind, man? You are crazy, mentally unstable. I am absolutely sure of this, beyond the shadow of a doubt. What normal human being could be so f****n flip about doing something like this, if it was a mistake? Hell, it may not have been a mistake at all. I don’t doubt it. 

 

F**k you. I hope you fail in all you do in life. I hope this site crashes. I hope you never get anything more out of it. I hope hard, man. I hope these things come to pass. I cried like baby today, because of you. I’m letting go of writing for now, because of you. I have absolutely no faith in sites like this one, because of you. You make me sick, you piece of s**t. Two years of growth, down the f****n drain like worthless s**t.

 

You took the passion and love of thousands of people and worked it over. You shitted on these things, then smiled at us and said “You still have your pictures and friend lists and obsolete reviews, you ungrateful a******s. I've even thrown in extra features and crappy contests with insignificant cash prizes, meaningless though they may be. How dare you judge me.”

 

You arrogant b*****d, thinking that such an “apology” would ever mean anything to intelligent people.

 

People deserve more than a flip, fake a*s apology when their souls have been torn out and raped, ripped the f**k apart and cast aloft like confetti.

 

I sincerely hope you fail in life.

 

You sorry sack of insensitive s**t.

 

You make me sick, and though the only comfort I have right now is knowing with absolute certainty that thousands of people around the world feel the same exact way, the exact same hatred towards you that I do, it’ll have to do.

 

Because all I have other than that now is my rage and heartbreak.

Reviews

[Nicole Hellene]

Did you try going through google cache? That's how I got my stuff back after it was deleted. Reviews and everything. There should be a link on this site somewhere to it. Also try archives.com, it makes a copy of webpages for an internet library. This is the information age, information is never lost, just moved around. However, I do know how you feel, lost an entire final draft on this site once. Charlie didn't check the cache even after I begged him because I was going to submit it to a zine. This site's gone haywire anyway, but try the google cache anyway.

[Val Val]

My darlin... I could say I'm sorry your work is gone and that you're so upset but words would pale next to my emotions. Lucky for me I backed my stuff up last summer but still reviews are gone, trust in human nature is gone. It's amazing that we all got wrapped up in this community atmosphere and forgot that there are people out there who are absolute s**t heads. I don't buy the whole one-click-of-the-mouse thing either but I am vamoosed to figure out the reason why he would delete our work. I think he must be trying to phase this site out. Maybe we got too big for him to handle, shove into a neat little box. But at the end of the day, I have to say that without Charlie (and Patrick) I would never have met any of you guys and, to me, that was a God send. I would be nothing right now without this site, just as this site would be nothing without us. So maybe we leave. And maybe we never communicate online again. It doesn't matter. We are all connected. People who have looked each other in the eye and know where it's at. I love you. Sincerely. I feel your pain and I think of you often. Thousands of miles separate us, Broadie, but I am still right there beside you just like you are with me. Two people sitting on a dock talking about Harry Potter, sharks, and other random things. Forever.

[R J Askew]

I, too, thought the wording of the apology was piss poor. I am sure your volcanic diatribe catches the feeling of many of us. Good luck mate.

[Paul Grimsley]

yeah, this was the last thing i needed. i had a hard drive crash earlier in the year and have spent six months using a programme to piece together my work. i was in the process of backing up my work here because like you said i got comfortable -- i trusted the architecture of this site more than my laptop. 300 pieces flushed.
i still don't buy the one mouse click story -- how many programmes have so few failsafes? the back up argument should apply to a site as well shouldn't it? after the accident regular back-ups are introduced. google cache got me 24 pieces back, thanks.
the other thing is you look at top rated writers and all the ones of any real significance -- the ones who were here from early on; the ones that used to be the backbone of the site -- their significance has been wiped out. extra points for reposting? bullshit. the apology? does it even deserve to be called that.
this was a watershed year for me -- some big things happened. i wrote about them. i lost them.
everything you say -- i second it. f*****g amen, broadie.

[Jenny Davis]

Damn!!! Now that's a vent! You've said what is on a lot of people's minds...most are too afraid to say it...I commend you for your candid rant and your "balls to the wall" attitude! I think the people that say their stuff should have been backed up should take a flying leap off a tall building somewhere, speeches about "should have" are stupid and mean after the fact! Cheers and bravo to you for writing this...I hope you continue writing even if it isn't here...Peace :)

PS- You should enter this in the Vent Radio contest, LOL!

[Wendy G.]

hey, bro . . . i'm feeling this. i took everything down and closed up a while ago, but all of my work is sitting on my harddrive on my broken a*s laptop and i don't know if i can ever get it back. i feel you. this was some enevitable s**t, and i seem to recall that charlie completely deleted someones profile a while back and lost all of their work because he made a "mistake" before. i am all about backing things up, but sometimes you can't protect your work enough. it hurts, it always does. i've been through this numerous times when writing sites were infants. i used to type my work right into the submission window and click send and it would dissapear into the abyss. you and i know each other pretty well (probably too well) and i know that more than anything you are hurt. i'm also one of your biggest fans, and it would be devastating if you decided that somebody elses royal f**k up was going to keep you down for good. HH was right, even your big-middle-finger-f**k-you had flow. your voice is amazing! anger is an energy bro, use it.

[R. MonaLeza]

I saw Broadie go through these emotions (he's my roomie) and my heart ached so deeply for him. Like he put it, it was like losing a child. You can't just say oops and expect things to be better. I really expected more than a trite apology and no hope for a solution. I guess if that lousy letter of explanation, that I assume was supposed to be an apology, had been followed with a "hey my fellow writers, we're gonna do everything we can to rectify this and try to find your work or give you ideas on how to do it" it might have taken some of the pain, anger, and sadness away. The worst thing to say is, "out of the ashes of ruin, comes a new beginning." That's just plain bullshit. I am so deeply disappointed not in the fact that this happened but that Charlie treated it so blithely. After Encino I would have imagined he knew how much this site meant to us. Shame on you, Charlie.

But as always, we pulled together and there were those who offered suggestions and ideas on how to possibly retrieve some, if not all, of the lost work. This site has always been about the forging together of writers who have such a deep passion, love, and caring for one another. I just don't think Charlie ever fully realized it.

For those of you who love Broadie's work, I'm pushing him to keep going and post on a more trusted site at some point. To lose his talent would be a travesty.

[Jonathan Escoffery]

Damn man, I'm so, so sorry to hear you lost all that work. I'm kinda speechless really. But you have every right to express your anger. I think I'll get at you on myspace. I really don't know what to say.

[REALIZE]

Damn B I feel your pain to the fullest extent. Though I didn't lose my work on here I do know what it feels like to lose my writing and for it to never be able to be seen again. Those thoughts, those vivid pictures, that feeling you had when it was written. All gone. I feel it. Thats why I understand the angst by so many for Charlie, whom showed so much carelessness in losing that work and not backing it up. How you feel about him is the anger talking, the emotions of you who loved this site so much to the point you built lasting relationships with so many different yet the same writers. It hurts my heart that this has happened. Thats why the pain is so strong in my heart for you and others that I built relationships with on here.

Those whom I would get excited to here from, those whom work I read everytime they would put something out. Those writers whom encouraged me in my work when I don't consider myself that good of a writer. However, there are some I don't feel sorry for, some i don't have any feelings for. I never been the type to judge anyone so I won't take that time now, but there are writers whom work never mattered more than their arrogant,"I'm the best writer here" attitude. Those whom felt they were Edgar allan poe, Langston Hughes reincarnated so they deserved the most props. When their work was a bunch of rants and complaints meant for sending emails and problem letters to Charlie instead of getting "story" or "writer of the day". For those so-called writers, Charlie's carlessness was an omen. Me and you talked about this before you shared your disdain for some writers on here and how the site had changed negatively. Nevertheless, push on like I told another writer on here. If and when you leave here, I deeply understand. This was to much for you to bare. I know what this meant to you, B. I never took this place that serious enough to trust them with my work so I guess I was fortunate not to lose anything. But I feel for those that did. I feel your pain bro do your thing just keep writing. And if you need me to ever read something, send it to me.

[Kari [io]]

ditto.