One thing that makes me very happy about #NaNoWriMo crashing and burning: It's good evidence that the #writing world is not even remotely buying into the AI hype. (Unlike another industry I'm involved in... 
Having poor moderation practices that enabled grooming? That was bad for them. But promoting AI? That *killed* them. Writers are going: "AI? Fuck, no! 
#NaNoWriMo no no no 
The whole point is to write as the act and process of writing is the purpose, not having some AI generate an end product. Such a waste.
Goodbye #nanowrimo. It didn't have to be like this, but Kilby chose every wrong thing to do and say she possibly could have and then got mad at the community for calling her out. #writingcommunity
Looks like #WritingMonth, my open source #NaNoWriMo alternative, just hit 750 users. 
https://www.theverge.com/news/642258/nanowrimo-organization-shutting-down
NaNoWriMo, the nonprofit organization behind the annual writing challenge to finish a novel in November, is shutting down due to financial struggles.
This comes after participation and fundraising decreased in recent years, and controversies over the use of AI tools and child grooming allegations.
The NaNoWriMo site will remain online, but the challenges will no longer be formally hosted.
Go Fash, (as in embrace GenAI and Child abuse) lose Cash
"In 2023, many writers abandoned NaNoWriMo after it refused to take a stand against the use of AI tools in writing. Around the same time, one of its moderators faced child grooming accusations, leading to more criticism from the community."
And that's how you destroy something after 20 years.
https://www.theverge.com/news/642258/nanowrimo-organization-shutting-down
NaNoWriMo has gone bankrupt, after an ill-considered choice involving AI. (I don't know the details.) I was an ML for Years 4-5.
I'm in south-central Connecticut, Greater New Haven area. If anyone is interested in a go-it-alone or, let's say, federated but locally-oriented effort come November, I'm game. Contact me here or privately.
I'm a bit rushed right now, but I'll add details later in comments below this post. Questions and comments welcome.
Everyone is always eager to buy or support a book via the library. We discuss movies, tv shows, art and various creative mediums to exchange knowledge and inspire each other with "new" things that someone might love.
Some of the writers make money off their work, others don't and rely on money from elsewhere.
That #NaNoWriMo has failed in this fashion should alarm others who rely on creative folks for sales. We don't want to spend money with people who screw over our friends.
in not just the act of creating something but also in the communities built around making things, businesses are cutting off money to the very people who bring community to those businesses.
The writing group I'm part of ran their own challenge instead of #NaNoWriMo last year. This was before the AI announcement but after the community scandals. These writers didn't want to continue despite having been active as participants and donors. So we just moved on.
We often share book recommendations
I think something that really isn't discussed clearly enough is highlighted here: https://flipboard.com/@futurism/futurism-1lupih3cz/-/a-u207kQCtTpO4CFsx3nlHdg%3Aa%3A1737388686-%2F0
Do you know that #writers were the ones donating to #NaNoWriMo ? And that generally speaking it is creatively inclined people who typically want to pay for the goods made by other creatively inclined people. That writers are typically readers who share book recommendations with other writers and have various #Books communities they're involved in.
1/
It's really bizarre to me that #NaNoWriMo was a full-on organization that needed funding in the first place.
I shudder to think how much organizational overhead is there is in #Inktober, #Movember and #Beecember...
NO MO NANOWRIMO
I missed the Monday announcement that the annual online writing fest is shutting down.
Don't let that - and the resultant lack of peer pressure - shut down your writing
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/apr/02/creative-writing-nanowrimo-to-close-after-20-years
Oh wow, the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) annual challenge for writers that started as a Yahoo! mailing list in 1999 is shutting down.
"NaNoWriMo lost significant community support when it took a stand in favor of the use of artificial intelligence in creative writing. [...] Around the same time, the nonprofit was also lambasted for inconsistent moderation on its all-ages forums, which created an unsafe environment for teenage writers, community members claimed."
https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/01/nanowrimo-shut-down-after-ai-content-moderation-scandals/
The #NaNoWriMo org is dead and GOOD RIDDANCE.
The dead org is trying to spin this as "the community is just too selfish to support us"
but
uh
NO.
The community deserted you because you betrayed them over and over and OVER AGAIN. Not just once ("let's accept scammers as sponsors!") Not just twice ("Oh, a mod was accused of child grooming? let's protect the mod and ban the kids!") but repeatedly.
Details here: https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/1ae3038/writing_discords_forums_and_a_decades_worth_of/
Oh well, they fucked around and found out.
> NaNoWriMo Goes Bankrupt After Embracing AI https://futurism.com/nanowrimo-closing-embracing-ai
"It had also suffered reputational harm after failing to read the room on AI and struggling with moderation problems."
https://boingboing.net/2025/04/02/nanowrimo-shutting-down.html
This is probably a bad idea, Bobby Boy thinks wildly. Jimothy isn’t sure that he’s going to be able to stop himself from kissing Bobby Boy anymore, now that he knows what it feels like—he’s doomed himself, really, because he’s probably not even going to be able to look Bobby Boy in the eye at the club anymore.
69/420
2 hour deep dive into why Nanowrimo. Just why. And how. "Allegedly" (is that how you spell it?)
