You can now access this page directly at nanoscandal.com!
Several people have asked for a timeline of this situation. We've tried to include most of the defining incidents of the past year so you can understand why people are unhappy, so this timeline doesn't cover the 2019 website or anything else before December 2022 that may contribute to general community discontent.
Note: We refer to past and present staff members and board members by name, but use placeholders for the volunteer mods and try not to name participants. Moderator X is the same Moderator X referred to in the NaNoWriMo Board's posts. Moderator Y is a different former moderator who is mentioned to provide additional context. In reality, if you've been on the NaNoWriMo forums in the last couple of years, you know who we’re talking about.
Content note: racism, alleged grooming of minors and predatory behavior toward minors
-December 2022: Inkitt, one of NaNo's sponsors, is revealed to be a predatory publishing company. Moderator Y shuts down the discussion and is extremely blunt in discussion throughout this debacle. A participant creates a thread called "What has happened here?", which starts a wider discussion about NaNoWriMo forum culture. It comes out that Letitia (Lead Forums Moderator, Heather's successor) has barely been doing anything on the forums, Moderators X and Y have been doing almost all the forum moderation, and the forum mods have been severely understaffed. Moderator Y steps down or is removed as forum mod; it's unclear. No email goes out to the wider NaNoWriMo community. This is relevant to the current situation in that distrust in HQ is now public and declining.
-March-April 2023: By this point Moderator X is the only person moderating the Christian Teens Together (CTT) thread, the busiest thread on the NaNoWriMo forum, leading to some inconsistent at best, inappropriate at worst moderation practices. Some non-teen participants discover that Moderator X allegedly runs a fetish website that allegedly includes content involving minors. Allegedly there is also evidence of luring minors to that site, as well as allegedly luring adults from that site to NaNoWriMo to interact with the teens.
Side note because this has come up a lot in the rumor mill: this has nothing to do with the Young Writers Program forums. Moderator X had nothing to do with YWP.
-Early May 2023: The previously mentioned group of participants sends enough information to NaNoWriMo HQ to prompt an investigation into Moderator X, as well as a report to the appropriate authorities. The information sent to NaNoWriMo staff is not meant to be irrefutable proof, merely enough to start an investigation. Marya at HQ acknowledges receipt the next day and then the NaNoWriMo staff does... what exactly? Moderator X remains a forum mod during whatever investigation may have come of that information. We repeat, Moderator X remains a forum mod despite being investigated for alleged inappropriate interactions with minors.
-Mid-June 2023: Moderator X is removed as a forum mod for reasons unrelated to the concerns brought to HQ. There’s an announcement in the Public Moderation Record (PMR) record about this, but with no names. Moderator X continues posting on the forums as a regular participant, sounding like an authority figure in some of the Discourse-related posts.
-June-Julyish 2023: Moderator Y starts parroting on the forums that they have it on "good authority" that Letitia (who is Black) is a diversity hire. Moderator Y is called out on this comment. At the time we interpreted this comment as a crappy one to make, but also believed that Moderator Y was salty about not getting the Lead Forum Moderator position because they also applied for it.
-August-ish 2023: Moderator Y deletes their NaNoWriMo account, stops MLing, and goes torched earth on their Tiktok, revealing a ton of private message conversations from Heather, the previous Lead Forums Moderator. These messages generally vent about the forums and moderation. However, one of those messages is Moderator Y saying that "you" (the other person in the conversation, aka Heather) had once said Letitia was a diversity hire. This is the supposed "good authority" of Moderator Y's comments. Moderator Y eventually deletes these Tiktoks, but not before someone reports the Tiktoks to NaNoWriMo HQ.
-Early October: NaNoWriMo HQ immediately removes Heather as a volunteer mod, suspends her mod account, and drags their feet on when Heather can post a public apology. Heather finally says screw it and posts her apology in early October. A ton of people take one racist comment as a crucifixion and want her banned from the site, even as her old account. Heather has privately apologized to Letitia by this point and is still around as a regular participant under her old Dragonchilde account.
Note: the issue here isn't that Heather had to make a public apology or that Heather's comment wasn't racist enough or public enough. The issue is that NaNoWriMo HQ was swift to act on one private racist comment while letting a situation involving allegations over minor safety sit while the involved party remained in power.
-Late October: Marya, Director of Programs, says she didn't see any child abuse in the report that was sent in May. Participants are Not Happy. Also, an ML (Municipal Liaison, a regional volunteer) is warned that their criticism of HQ is violating the ML agreement, so they quit.
Quote from Marya, 27 October 2023: “Again, we said that the moderation relationship was unhealthy, and that was part of the decision to remove the mod, and add additional mods to teen threads. The person was removed for several reasons though, and I wouldn’t characterize any of them as child abuse.”
Quote from Shelby, 25 October 2023: ”Like all online communities, these forums don’t always live up to the community guidelines or culture we’d like to build, and we’re actively working to improve them. That said, we don’t believe minors are at increased risk here, nor do we think any child abuse occurred in the past. We do think that some moderation related to a teens group became unhealthy, which is one of the reasons we removed a moderator and added additional moderators to any under-18 group. We know that the moderator in question’s removal was not noted as publicly and clearly as it should have been.”
Note: this is around the same time that another participant posted a thread detailing their experience with a (now-former) predatory moderator on the forums. This moderator is not involved in the 2023 controversies. The thread was immediately moved to deep freeze. The participant eventually received an apology and the thread was restored, but the incident made the “no child abuse here” statement especially egregious.
-October 30: NaNoWriMo bans Moderator X, Moderator X's alt account (which also had moderator privileges), and the close friend account. This is announced in the PMR thread without mentioning usernames. The reason: "threats against the organization".
-November 1: Announcement comes out that Letitia is on administrative leave for the month. It is buried in the Moderation Culture and Forum Feedback (MFCF) thread and announced nowhere else. Understandably details are thin so the reason is unclear.
-Early November: The forums go wild. Shelby and Sarah are the primary forum moderators. Criticism of HQ is viewed as vitriol and shut down. New threads are started. Even some elegant threads that do not violate any rules but still critique HQ actions, such as Retrospective: What Has Happened Here? (a nod to the What Has Happened Here? thread from Sponsorgate), are shut down before being opened again. Sarah and Shelby finally agree they went too far. Meanwhile, in the moderator forum, Shelby and Sarah say that mods need to shut down discussion of HQ criticism. One of the new forum mods quits over this.
-Early November: the YWP teens start coming out about their treatment on the YWP forums, which are modded solely by Marya, Letitia, and Rob--all paid staff. Among other things, the teens share a carrd page (https://speak-out.carrd.co) they created with testimonials about how they were treated on the YWP forums.
-November 5: A participant who has been vocal in the MFCF thread about the safety of minors posts an FAQ about the Moderator X situation. https://forums.nanowrimo.org/t/faq-about-an-ex-nano-mod-allegedly-compromising-minor-safety/573253 A Twitter thread containing screenshots of this forum thread goes viral.
-November 7: The NaNoWriMo board receives its first message about this situation from a concerned Wrimo.
-November 10: Shelby posts in the Public Moderation Record thread that they expect to have more information about the forums on Monday, finally recognizing that dropping loads of info on Friday afternoon North America time is not ideal. Rumors start to spread that the forums will close on the following Monday.
-November 12: Sunday morning in North America. Forums are closed on the main site. The board posts a response overview about pausing the forums, summarizing the situation to date: https://forums.nanowrimo.org/t/board-response-overview-pausing-the-forums/579464 The staff and mods are requested not to moderate. This thread is still open for discussion, though it veers off topic a lot. It's up to MLs whether or not to leave their regional forums open. Some do, others don't.
-November 13: YWP forums are closed because the board didn't realize they had to tell the staff to close the YWP forums too.
-November 13: "Board response to complaints about forum safety and the safety of minors" is posted to the forums and is open for 36 hours on a 1-hour slow mode. Link: https://forums.nanowrimo.org/t/board-response-to-complaints-about-forum-safety-and-the-safety-of-minors/580358
-November 15: "Board response to complaints about censorship and staff moderation" is posted to the forums and is open for 36 hours on a 1-hour slow mode. https://forums.nanowrimo.org/t/board-response-to-complaints-about-censorship-and-staff-moderation/582083
-November 17: "Board response to forum concerns" email goes out to all Wrimos. It's also posted on the forums: https://forums.nanowrimo.org/t/our-letter-to-the-nanowrimo-community/583366
-Mid-November: The whole situation starts reaching Tiktok users with large audiences.
-November 28: The promised Q&A thread is posted to the forums: https://forums.nanowrimo.org/t/got-questions-need-answers-join-us-right-here/585998 While there are many good questions, Kilby Blades, the board president, appears to be the only person answering the questions. The thread goes off topic for awhile when Kilby mentions part of her NaNoWriMo experience involves doing a writing retreat during November, which came off as out of touch to participants in the thread. The board answers are reasonable at first, but then turn snippy while also misinterpreting some of the questions at hand.
-December 4: The board posts an update: https://forums.nanowrimo.org/t/update-on-the-forums-and-nanowrimo-moving-forward/587243
An excerpt:
“We want folks to know that we’ve hired a consultant as an on-the-ground resource who will serve the organization over the next several months. The forums will remain closed until the aforementioned assessment is complete and until a path forward is decided upon.
Unfortunately, in recent days, the questions we’ve received via the forums have become increasingly granular. We’ve done our best to convey that there’s a tremendous amount that has yet to be decided and discussed. We’re reaching the conclusion that there’s not much more real information we can give folks at this point. We are also recognizing that our time is better spent deliberating on the issues at hand rather than being hyper-responsive. Monitoring our inboxes and forum questions has become a full-time job.
As a result, our plan is to close all current Board forum threads as well. We will respond to questions that have already been posted as time allows us. Folks can email us with questions and suggestions at [nanowrimoboard@gmail.com} but please bear with us around the expediency of our responses. Please know as well that we will be communicating our progress monthly to keep folks informed, via email channels.” (emphasis ours)
This timeline doesn't begin to cover the issues brought up in those threads, which are numerous. In short: NaNoWriMo HQ needs to do a lot to turn this ship around, and it’s hard to be optimistic.
-Early December: Letitia’s administrative leave ends in being let go. Rob Diaz (YWP forums moderator) is removed from the staff page. By early January, TIffany Cole (social media manager), Alyssa (graphic designer), and Katharine Gripp (Communications Manager), and Marya Brennan (Director of Programs) have all been removed from the staff page. Kilby is removed from the board page but isn’t added to the staff page as Interim Director until January.
-January 18, 2024 - early February: A group of participants starts spreading the word on Reddit and Tumblr telling others not to vote for NaNoWriMo for Project for Awesome, denying NaNoWriMo a grant they have received for a decade.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nanowrimo/comments/19a0n9k/dont_vote_for_nanowrimo_for_p4a/
NaNoWriMo eventually states in a Facebook comment that they won’t be doing Project for Awesome when asked about it.
Another post, NO MORE NANOWRIMO, gains traction on r/nanowrimo https://www.reddit.com/r/nanowrimo/comments/19dy3ho/no_more_nanowrimo/
-January 23, 2024: The NaNoWriMo Board sends its January update via email and the forums. https://forums.nanowrimo.org/t/message-from-nanowrimo-board-january-2024-update-to-the-community/590363
Also, Grant is no longer listed as Executive Director on the NaNoWriMo staff page. Instead he’s listed as Financial Stewardship Director, while Kilby Blades is listed as Interim Director.
-January 29, 2024: Two posts appear in the Hobby Drama subreddit with a summary of the past year’s events, including items that don’t come up in this timeline. Topics include how three neurodivergent MLs were kicked from the unofficially official ML server in November for sharing screenshots and breaking unwritten rules while not being told why they were kicked, the Ivan the Icy incident of 2017, and details about what the Young Writers Program teens went through.
Post 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/1ae3038/writing_discords_forums_and_a_decades_worth_of/
Post 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/1ae33g5/writing_discords_forums_and_a_decades_worth_of/
-February 7, 2024: Grant posts on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook throughout the week about his departure from NaNoWriMo. Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/p/C3D87UAvfmB/?img_index=1
Despite mentioning a succession plan in this post, it later comes out that the NaNo staff and board have not started the search for a new Executive Director as of early March, a search that typically takes several months.
-February 9, 2024: Sarah emails MLs with some news. Of note, the beginning of the email states that the contents of the email is intended for MLs:
“Please remember that the information in this email is intended for MLs and should not be shared. We know that having advanced notice about upcoming announcements and changes allows MLs to be better prepared to field questions from participants, but if we continue to see confidentiality breaches, that will limit our ability to offer that advance notice going forward.”
The rest of the email summarizes that a new ML agreement is coming, and provides ways for MLs to provide feedback, such as taking the 2023 ML survey and signing up for focus groups intended for returning MLs.
There’s also a form for MLs to fill out declaring whether they intend to return for 2024, whether they intend to step down, or whether they’re unsure. No further reminder is sent about this action.
Note: As of mid-March, one of these focus groups has happened but according to participants was not a productive session.
-Late February 2024: Sarah notifies HQ that she is going on a sudden personal leave, likely through April. This isn’t revealed until Kilby mentions it in an email to MLs on March 3.
-March 1, 2024: NaNoWriMo sends a programs update via email only. Notable items:
An FAQ for organizational changes is included: https://nanowrimo.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/24182490158484-FAQs-About-Organization-Updates
-March 3, 2024: MLs receive a preview of the new ML agreement. Well, some of the MLs receive it. Some MLs receive the agreement with a deadline of March 15 to declare that they’re returning. Others receive the agreement with a deadline of March 20. Others receive the agreement with no deadline. No one is sure of the pattern.
The new ML agreement is more comprehensive than the original agreement, but it puts a lot more liability on the MLs, contradicts itself in places, and may break laws in some jurisdictions. The file for MLs was locked down so it couldn’t be downloaded or printed, but that didn’t stop anyone. Here’s the original file created by NaNoWriMo HQ: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mYOInnXuIEGCo5Pi9oovxKeVQKxMYYFm/view
Here’s an alternate copy of the document in case the original disappears: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jkm2K7xJh_k3PEEetwKkbkXMMFlpfURv/view
Some highlights:
This gets MLs riled up, so naturally they start sharing it.
It is, of course, shared widely:
An ML begins a petition in the ML forums saying they will not sign it unless the contract is substantially revised.
Some MLs waver over whether to stay or go, while the decision is much easier for others.
-March 7, 2024: The Feb/March board update appears on the forums. https://forums.nanowrimo.org/t/message-from-nanowrimo-board-of-directors-february-march-2024-update-to-the-community/592793 For participants who have been following the situation closely, little of this information is new.
Of note, Rose Brock and Cari Borja’s board terms have ended, and they worked beyond the end of their terms. Josie Brown and Karolynn St-Pierre have joined the board. Also, the search for a new executive director has yet to begin as of this update’s writing, as the board is still preparing for it.
“Going forward, the Board will be working diligently on and championing the staff’s efforts in fundraising to solidify these enhanced programs. Updates on operations will be coming from HQ, and the Board will keep the community abreast of anything majorly impactful from our purview when they arise.”
This excerpt may mean this board update is the last one.
-March 9, 2024: An FAQ section for MLs appears on the Zendesk help website. It includes these questions:
Pertinent information from these FAQs:
There was no reminder email sent after Sarah’s February 9 email, and the responses HQ received were treated as the single source of truth, leaving out people who didn’t receive that email or were unsure but didn’t want to say that immediately. As the primary ML contact during Sarah’s absence, Kilby chose to communicate only with the MLs who said they were staying or were unsure without sending reminder emails to those who haven’t responded.
-March 10, 2024: The ML FAQ is updated with four new questions:
-March 13, 2024: Allison, the now-former Director of Community Fundraising, is no longer listed on the NaNoWriMo staff page. Also, we’ve received at least three reports of MLs who have been relieved of ML duties after emailing Kilby with ML contract questions despite not directly resigning. There’s also a new communications intern.
-March 15, 2024 4:00pm GMT, 9:00am PDT (Kilby's time zone): After sending out Zoom invites last minute, Kilby hosts a Q&A call with MLs about the ML agreement. The call goes for three hours with hard questions from MLs from around the world that Kilby stumbles on. Kilby refuses to record the call because everyone in the call would have to consent but says she'll release a transcript afterward. Someone does record the session and put it on Youtube as an unlisted video. We'll come back to this.
-March 19, 2024: MLs are still quitting en masse. We haven't recorded each one in this summary but notably, a legend among the ML community quit, one who has built tools for the wider NaNo community on top of MLing for 15+ years.
-March 21, 2024: The opening to fill Marya's position (Director of Programs) is now open. Also, Hanne (Operations Manager) is no longer listed on the NaNo staff page.
-March 22, 2024: The recorded Youtube video makes its way to the ML forums. Kilby sends an email within two hours saying that the second ML Q&A (which would take place at Saturday, March 23 at 12:00am PDT or Saturday at 7:00am GMT) was cancelled. No transcript of the first call will be provided.
-March 27, 2024: All MLs have been removed from their regions. A new-ish version of the ML agreement went out to MLs, although not much was changed. You can view the “revised” agreement here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NQ6hMEpFfhrBTCcxV_8tgRChBX8Zxsco/view For some reason you still can't download or print it.
According to an email from Kilby, the deadline to decide whether to stay or go is April first. Yes, less than a week from receiving the revised agreement. She will not be taking any more questions. No joke.
-April 9, 2024: The opening to fill Grant's position (Executive Director) is now open.
-April 11, 2024: Kilby gains admin access to the ML Facebook group and posts a very long post that boils down to pausing the ML Facebook group. We'll ignore the part where the Facebook group was created because unofficial groups have existed for years, and even though this group is for past and present MLs alike; that is, MLs have not historically been removed from the group after retiring from MLing.
In a comment to a member post, Kilby confirms that Sarah is no longer a group admin because Sarah is no longer at NaNoWriMo HQ. Since Sarah reported to the Director of Programs, NaNo HQ may wait until the new Director of Programs is hired and onboarded, so MLs may be dealing with Kilby for awhile.
Also, we haven't noted it here previously because access has been iffy for the past few weeks, but the pages for staff, board of directors, and writer's board are no longer accessible. This appears to be a permanent change. (Editor's note: If you're actually harassing staff, cut it out. There's a difference between holding staff accountable and attacking them.)
-April 12, 2024: According to a past ML who emailed Grant directly, NaNoWriMo HQ now consists of only Kilby, a part-time tech person, and an intern. That’s it.
While this info is secondhand, it’s big enough to note here, and we have reason to believe this source.
-May 29, 2024: A new page appears on the header of the NaNo website, titled “Changes at NaNoWriMo - May 2024”. You can read it at https://nanowrimo.org/changes-at-nanowrimo-may-2024
If you’ve read the official emails and FAQs, you already know most of this. If you’ve been following in other spaces, you also know NaNo HQ (aka Kilby Blades, interim director at the moment) is telling only one side of the story.
What does NaNo need from participants? Tl;dr make NaNoWriMo a nice place (note she didn’t say a safe or kind place) and give them money.
-Mid-June 2024: Age gating starts rolling out on the NaNo website. Participants also have to agree to a new terms of service that was effective as of 21 February 2024. No email went out about this TOS update. The age gating doesn’t work on some browsers for awhile, or if you were already logged in.
-August 7, 2024: Notable in being a non-event, but as of this date, no one we know of has received information about reinstating old MLs or applying to be a new ML. NaNoWriMo is less than three months away, and the ML application (and sometimes onboarding) process is typically in progress at this point.
-August 2024: It's not especially notable, but by this point Kilby and Caitlin (the intern turned communications manager) are refusing to answer any substantial questions on the Facebook page, instead redirecting all questions to the NaNoWriMo Zendesk. Anything they do comment on is written in a condescending or blunt way, often both.
(Caitlin, if you're reading this, I hope you're actively job hunting.)
September 1, 2024: NaNoWriMo posts several more questions and answers to their Zendesk. From innocuous to "What are they thinking?":
Here's the full text of the last one in case it's deleted later. Note that this answer does not differentiate between generative AI (ChatGPT, etc) and non-generative AI use cases (voice to text, spell check, etc). And yes, NaNoWriMo HQ equates condemning AI to being classist and ableist. We wish we were making this up.
NaNoWriMo does not explicitly support any specific approach to writing, nor does it explicitly condemn any approach, including the use of AI. NaNoWriMo's mission is to "provide the structure, community, and encouragement to help people use their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds—on and off the page." We fulfill our mission by supporting the humans doing the writing. Please see this related post (https://nanowrimo.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/29929627478804) that speaks to our overall position on nondiscrimination with respect to approaches to creativity, writer's resources, and personal choice.
We also want to be clear in our belief that the categorical condemnation of Artificial Intelligence has classist and ableist undertones, and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege.
Beyond that, we see value in sharing resources and information about AI and any emerging technology, issue, or discussion that is relevant to the writing community as a whole. It's healthy for writers to be curious about what's new and forthcoming, and what might impact their career space or their pursuit of the craft. Our events with a connection to AI have been extremely well-attended, further-proof that this programming is serving Wrimos who want to know more.
For all of those reasons, we absolutely do not condemn AI, and we recognize and respect writers who believe that AI tools are right for them. We recognize that some members of our community stand staunchly against AI for themselves, and that's perfectly fine. As individuals, we have the freedom to make our own decisions.
Discussion of this FAQ takes over creative circles on social media. As of this writing, Writers Board members Daniel Jose Older, Cass Morris, and Rebecca Kim Wells have all resigned. A former intern is removing the NaNo internship from their resume. Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus, one of the most commercially successful books that started out as a NaNoWriMo project, has been attempting to contact NaNoWriMo HQ to remove her from promotion materials.
Early media coverage:
https://www.404media.co/nanowrimo-ai-policy-classist-ableist/ - 404 Media
https://www.metafilter.com/205330/NaNoWriMo-Arguing-against-using-AI-for-writing-is-classist-ableist - Metafilter
The Zendesk FAQ was also updated on September 2 in North America time zones with the following paragraph:
Note: we have edited this post by adding this paragraph to reflect our acknowledgment that there are bad actors in the AI space who are doing harm to writers and who are acting unethically. We want to make clear that, though we find the categorical condemnation for AI to be problematic for the reasons stated below, we are troubled by situational abuse of AI, and that certain situational abuses clearly conflict with our values. We also want to make clear that AI is a large umbrella technology and that the size and complexity of that category (which includes both non-generative and generative AI, among other uses) contributes to our belief that it is simply too big to categorically endorse or not endorse.
September 3: Ellipsus stepped down as a NaNoWriMo sponsor and issued a statement. Freewrite also no longer appears on the sponsors page, but they haven't made a statement yet.
Maureen Johnson stepped down from the Writers Board.
Media outlets continue to cover the controversy. To avoid making this document even longer, we've limited the list to the most recognizable or industry-relevant names. Some of these articles may be behind a paywall.
Video coverage:
Daniel Greene (over 500,000 subscribers)
D'Angelo Wallace (on his side channel with over 400,000 subscribers)
September 6: NaNoWriMo HQ issues a statement on their main website, titled “A Note to Our Community About our Comments on AI - September 2024”. Full text:
To the NaNoWriMo Community:
In early August, debates about AI on our social media channels became vitriolic. It was clear that the intimidation and harassment we witnessed were causing harm within our community of writers. The FAQs we crafted last week were written to curtail those behaviors. We wanted to send a clear signal that NaNoWriMo spaces would not be used to bully or delegitimize other writers. This was consistent with our May 2024 statement, which named a lack of civility in NaNoWriMo spaces as a longstanding concern.
Taking a position of neutrality was not an abandonment of writers’ legitimate concerns about AI. It was an acknowledgment that NaNoWriMo can’t maintain a civil, inclusive community if we allow selective intolerance. We absolutely believe that AI must be discussed and that its ethical use must be advocated-for. What we don’t believe is that NaNoWriMo belongs at the forefront of that conversation. That debate should continue to thrive within the greater writing community as technologies continue to evolve.
Our Mission is about providing encouragement to writers and cheering them on as they progress toward their goals. That remains our primary focus. We apologize that our original statements lacked appropriate context and that our mistakes created distress. In the future, we will be more transparent about the issues that we are trying to address with any messaging we provide.
Finally, we recognize that some members of our community have other questions. We don’t think we can address all of these in a single communication. Additional context here is that we are a very small team (including our Interim Executive Director, who is a volunteer). We want to take the time to read through your letters with the care, attention, and concern they deserve. Please expect more in the coming weeks.
In partnership,
The NaNoWriMo Team
Note the lack of apology for the implication that disabled writers need AI to write. The original FAQ has also been heavily edited to remove the controversial remarks and to include a link to this statement.
Additionally, the “I can’t believe NaNoWriMo is endorsing ____” question has also been heavily edited. Here’s a Wayback Machine link containing the original version.
The New York Times also reports on NaNoWriMo and AI. Notable bits: they actually name Kilby Blades, who couldn’t be reached for comment. They note that this isn’t the first backlash NaNo has experienced, linking to the first November 2023 board response. Also, Freewrite issues a statement that their removal from the NaNoWriMo sponsors page was in error but that they’re currently reviewing their relationship with the org. Friends, this has officially escaped containment.
Scrivener's lead developer issues a statement. Despite finding NaNo's view bizzare and pushing NaNo to rethink what they are saying, Scrivener is not withdrawing their sponsorship, and AI has no place in their software. Notable bit:
Given how short-staffed they seem, I’m not sure if they will last anyway, but I do know that if sponsors pull out now there is a very real chance that there won’t be a NaNoWriMo 2025. Is that really the best outcome? Moral grandstanding would be a very easy way of signaling to everyone how wonderful we are, but I’m not convinced it would be of any actual use to the writing community. NaNoWriMo has helped so many writers achieve their goals that, despite its recent fall from grace, I think it’s premature to want them gone. And to be very honest, I would not want to be responsible for destroying the very event that launched our entire company. I’m not sure how principled that would really be.
September 6, late in North America's day: NaNoWriMo edits the statement about AI that they posted earlier in their day on the main NaNoWriMo website. Notably, the third paragraph, which previously began with "Our mission..." is now two paragraphs and now reads:
We apologize that our original message was unclear and seemingly random. Our note on ableism and classism was rooted in the desire to point out that, for people in certain circumstances, some forms of AI can be life-changing. We certainly don’t believe those with concerns about AI to be classist or ableist. Not being more careful about our wording was a bad decision on our part.
Our Mission is about providing encouragement to writers and cheering them on as they progress toward their goals. That remains our primary focus. In the future, we will be more transparent about the issues that we are trying to address with any messaging we provide.
September 7: The following authors who served on the Writers Board or were otherwise affiliated with NaNo in some way have all resigned as of this time. We’re still verifying these with links.
September 10 - Someone has added more FAQs to the Zendesk site. These have been edited since the time of original posting:
A fourth FAQ, "What evidence of child endangerment was presented to the organization?" was posted but taken down from public view by the time we made this update. https://nanowrimo.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/30257525040276-What-evidence-of-child-endangerment-was-presented-to-the-organization
Meanwhile, major press coverage continues:
September 12: NaNo sponsor Dabble posts a statement. They aren't withdrawing their sponsorship (yet) but have asked for things from NaNo HQ like transparency and notice before big things like the AI statement go out.
September 20-21: It took long enough, but the London (the one in England) and Toronto regions, two of the largest remaining regions, have withdrawn from NaNo.
September 23: Freewrite is listed on the sponsors page again.
September 27: Savy Writes Books, a Booktuber with 86k subscribers as of this writing, posts a 2-hour Youtube video summarizing what has gone down with NaNoWriMo HQ, with interviews from people knowledgeable about the situation. It's reasonably accurate for an outsider looking in. Topics discussed outside the scope of this megadoc include the NaNo organizational structure, the Ivan the Icy incident in 2017, treatment of volunteers, and the new website in 2019. Also, this doc gets quoted.