NaNoWriMo shut down after 25 years

[Cactus Chef]

https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/01/na...tion-scandals/

EDIT: Many of the other "hot takes" on this explicitly blame the AI scandal, which probably contributed, but I'm going with a neutral headline.

[Quoth]

I think it was having problems before the AI thing, which was a last gasp attempt at relevance.

[cfrizz]

Interesting. Taking a stance about being Pro AI was just stupid.

But the bigger issue was naturally money.

Did anyone on here use it? Did they make it clear from the beginning that the services whatever they were, were NOT free and that you had to pay to use them?

[Dr. Drib]

It's always money. And arrogance. And then disinterest.

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

Did anyone on here use it? Did they make it clear from the beginning that the services whatever they were, were NOT free and that you had to pay to use them?

I'm not quite sure what service they are talking about.

It's kind of sad, but I feel like it had been in decline for a few years, and the AI sponsor was an ill-advised last attempt to hang on.

I took part from 2003. The last time I wrote was 2014, I think, but I joined up for a few more years, thinking about it and then deciding I didn't have time. We had a nice local community that met all year round, and that also faded away in the late 2010s.

I don't know if a new generation was coming up, but "all" the nonprofit really needed to do was provide a website and a focal point. I guess content moderation will always be a problem for communities of that size. The regional forums were all run by volunteers, if I remember right.

[Critteranne]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I think it was having problems before the AI thing, which was a last gasp attempt at relevance.

The grooming scandal was a big problem. I wish it had gotten more coverage.

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by Critteranne

The grooming scandal was a big problem. I wish it had gotten more coverage.

It does seem like their mishandling of that is what put them into the downward spiral. They lost the support of some donors, and they alienated a lot of the community, and without the community there is nothing.

The strength and weakness is that it was an open community. The local groups were run by volunteers, who were effectively anonymous internet randos, so how do you police that?

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

It does seem like their mishandling of that is what put them into the downward spiral. They lost the support of some donors, and they alienated a lot of the community, and without the community there is nothing.

The strength and weakness is that it was an open community. The local groups were run by volunteers, who were effectively anonymous internet randos, so how do you police that?

I leaned a new word today: randos. (Really!)

Thank you.

[DiapDealer]

I always found the whole thing rather odd, myself. Odd that the Nation needed a Novel Writing Month, and odd that attempting to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November seemed like a reasonable thing to do. Definitely a "to each their own" thing, I guess.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I always found the whole thing rather odd, myself. Odd that the Nation needed a Novel Writing Month, and odd that attempting to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November seemed like a reasonable thing to do. Definitely a "to each their own" thing, I guess.

Strangely, pretty much my opinion too Seemed very odd.

[Critteranne]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

It does seem like their mishandling of that is what put them into the downward spiral. They lost the support of some donors, and they alienated a lot of the community, and without the community there is nothing.

The strength and weakness is that it was an open community. The local groups were run by volunteers, who were effectively anonymous internet randos, so how do you police that?

Some online communities have additional rules for minors. (And some of these rules are often required by their jurisdictions.) For example, I've been in communities that controlled the language level in the chatroom, banned people from asking "age, sex, location," had active moderators, and banned minors from certain forums. People can still try to get around these -- but better supervision makes it more difficult. On top of that, if the people in charge don't do anything once something has been reported to them, they're skating on thin ice.

[Critteranne]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I always found the whole thing rather odd, myself. Odd that the Nation needed a Novel Writing Month, and odd that attempting to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November seemed like a reasonable thing to do. Definitely a "to each their own" thing, I guess.

It can be fun -- although I think November was not the best month to choose for the event. (Too much holiday preparation going on.) I know people who have had lots of fun with Nano. They've written books, met other writers, etc.

I liked that Nano got more flexible later. You didn't have to write a novel. You could edit an existing novel during that time, for example.

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I always found the whole thing rather odd, myself. Odd that the Nation needed a Novel Writing Month, and odd that attempting to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November seemed like a reasonable thing to do. Definitely a "to each their own" thing, I guess.

I guess it's like running a marathon. You put in some effort, give up your free time for a while, and end up doing something you didn't think you could do.

(I'm not actually convinced I could do a marathon. But I sure can sit down and type for a while every day for 30 days.)

Also it wasn't really National. I'm not in the same nation.

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by Critteranne

Some online communities have additional rules for minors. (And some of these rules are often required by their jurisdictions.) For example, I've been in communities that controlled the language level in the chatroom, banned people from asking "age, sex, location," had active moderators, and banned minors from certain forums. People can still try to get around these -- but better supervision makes it more difficult. On top of that, if the people in charge don't do anything once something has been reported to them, they're skating on thin ice.

Sure, and it seems like that's the direction they decided to go. It seems they nuked it from orbit, rather than making it clear that it was an adult space with variable moderation by volunteers, and maybe starting over with the young writers side.

You destroy your community and then wonder where your community has gone.

Maybe it was the only way they felt they could meet their legal obligations, but it clearly didn't work.

[rantanplan]

It's interesting to see how differently NaNoWriMo and the Hugo Awards deal with their scandals. Several documentaries and books dealing with the 2023 scandal have been nominated for the Hugo Awards this year. NaNoWriMo essentially just diet.