#MODDING THIS WEBSITE IS A NIGHTMARE

[nyaagolor]

click three horizontal dots on the top right of a post -> mute notifications

I OWE YOU MY LIFE <3

[punkbooyahbomber2227]

gonna be honest the only reason i even have a modded kensa sloshing machine is because of the exploit in the software updater the kensa weapons had before their 4.2.0 patch that lets you inject code and run your own programs on that little lcd screen. it doesn't slosh ink properly since i got it as a secondhand junker, and i can't even use it anymore to post to the one other website i used to frequent and have all my posts say they were made on a sloshing machine ever since the grizzco buyout made everyone lose access to the site's api. i can only hope that someday i can bring this bit back on domesky though

[pseudophan]

decided i'm not doing enough dan and phil shit with my life already (lol) so i set up a dnp tumblr community cause i think it can become a cool feature and i want to partake in beta testing it

right now you can't request to join a community i have to like manually invite everyone (kms) and the member limit is 500 (though if we hit that we can request to have the limit upped) but i might set up a google form or something for people to submit their username if they want to join, i feel like that might be the easiest way of making sure i don't miss anyone

communities also need like mods and shit, and i think you can have more than one admin? i'm not sure yet i'm still looking into all this. but i think it can be a good solution to the eternal tumblr problem of 'oh my god getting to know people on here is a nightmare'. i see a lot of people on other platforms who want to join the tumblr phandom but they just don't know how to get into the community cause as much as i adore this website it's just not well built for that as of now. we'll see how it goes! i think it'll be fun :3

idk if anyone else has made a dnp one yet but i haven't seen one, so. also there can be a million of them but this is one option

i'll make a more "official" post later but for now this is more of a hiii... anyone think this sounds fun......

[marsimmi]

۶ৎ Mods for Sims 4 ۶ৎ

BetterExceptions ★

Pregnancy Overhaul - Belly ★ - Can do more ★ - No Gender Chance ★ - Death Chance ★ - Walkstyle ★ - Ultrasound Scan ★ - Miscarriage and Abortion ★

Can I come over? ★

First Love ★

Quick shower and bath ★

Auto Homework ★

Weather App ★

Kids can walk dogs ��

Romance Style Behavior Tweaks ★

No Time Decay for Sentiments ★

End Friendship ★

Cupid's Corner for Teens ★

Auto Breakup Tweaks ★

Smart Sim Randomizer ★

First Impressions ★

More Traits ★

Dreams and Nightmares ★

⋅˚₊‧ 𐙚 ‧₊˚ ⋅

happy simming! follow for more cc websites and links

[santae-salt]

Big tangent incoming, I'm so sorry. This website is an accessibility NIGHTMARE.

No pet site has ever put me in so much agonizing fibromyalgia pain, it's absolutely unreal. Flight Rising was already pretty bad in that regard but at least you can use multi-link opening even if staff gets a stick up their asses about it. You can't even do that on most Santae pages because of how they've coded the site.

Everything is so mouse oriented and menus can't even stay consistent between similar items, making it horrendous to navigate both physically and visually. It's physically agonizing and the site is in desperate need of keybinds for certain actions and optional accessibility toggles for things like mining to allow you to clear all the rocks in one go considering there's no gameplay mechanics to it and it's predetermined on load in.

Same shit with fishing only fishing has the added bonus of being almost impossible to see.

Speaking of impossible to see, the NPC shop index is a visual nightmare that is almost impossible to parse between the assault of colors, the font choice, and constantly moving things around and cramming in more. I have to squint for so long to find anything I want and it makes me not want to play at all.

Also the check prices link is soooo tiny and so hard to hit on mobile, which is just an insult to literal physical injury when the mobile version of the site is the only way I can play without being in physical agony.

Literally after my first day playing on PC (which was a couple weeks ago I think? Time is fake.) I had to have a three day recovery period from the pain it put me in. I know Santae is new but like. Devs have had years and years of watching other sites and the kinds of failures and complaints they face when they don't build with accessibility in mind. This is far past egregious and the fact that no one can bring up accessibility concerns or quality of life necessities without passive aggression or having to worry about being stalked and having the devs make up reasons to ban you to shut you up (which was already the FR experience) is EXTREMELY ALARMING.

We didn't need yet another pet site dev with unwarranted self importance and a supermassive ego, but here we are! I'm so tired of this age of incompetent management making themselves immune to feedback and meaningful change with intimidation, tyranny, or worse... fabricated victim complexes. (ie; FR devs claiming feedback is harassment and huwts their feewings )'': ) I'm tired. I have been around a long time.

I joined Neopets and Gaia Online when they were brand new. I watched the Sylestia shit show. I was in the FR closed Beta. I have seen just so much hubris and so many pet and doll sites burn down and it is always because of greed, entitlement, unwarranted self importance from admins, and general developer narcissism and unprofessionalism. I just want a pet site that isn't run by greedy dickheads with supermassive egos and a general lack of empathy, but that just seems like the default state of admins across the board.

Oh and?? Why is there so much LGBTQIA+ apparel for seemingly cherry picked identities but all Intersex people get is like a pin?? Incredible display of discrimination as if Intersex people don't suffer and face alienation enough. And finally I know it's been said to death but I wish people would stop giving them money until they abolish all the AI bullshit.

Anyway I appreciate this blog and the mod because it's unironically the most civil one I've ever seen and I hope it stays that way! Sorry for the tangent! Lots of love and I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

☁️

[ilikegoilss]

im only addressing this because ive been seeing people bringing one of my mutuals into it, which isnt cool. i want to pretend like this never happened. but i cant.

i drew something for an online friend who i no longer talk to. they posted it without my permission, and im contacting mods to take the post down since you cant delete your own post due to the regulations on the website they posted on. this art i made i DONT agree with, and ill admit, i shouldnt have drawn it. its gross and supports a ship i DONT support.

a user has put it as their banner. its fucking mortifying that its being spread, because i never even wanted it out there in the first place. its an explicit drawing. i am a MINOR. this user has also been really weird and sexual to said mutual. ive DMed them to take it down, and this post is being made ~20 hours after ive asked them to take it down. sorry if thats too short, ive just been barely able to function since this started.

im so fucking embarrassed, ashamed, and mortified. ive been stressing like shit over this for the past day or two—my hands are shaking as i type this. im really sorry about all of this.

i dont want to share who my friend was because they dont have tumblr, plus theres a lot of personal stuff going on with them and between us.

if you wanna know more, feel free to DM me. i wont answer questions that are asking for information of my friend. i wont expose them just because they fucked me over.

also sorry if it seems like im overreacting, just like i stated before, people are bringing a mutual of mine into this and i really dont want people connecting them with it. they have nothing to do with this.

i dont want this blowing up. please stop interacting with the drawing, if you find it on the website they posted it on please please please spam report if you can. i dont really know how it works. this is legit my worst nightmare.

[alainbm-mods]

Dreams & Nightmares Mod by AlainBM:

Hello, Simmers! I'm excited to announce the release of my new mod for The Sims 4 called "Dreams & Nightmares". This mod adds a whole new dimension to your Sims' lives by allowing them to experience dreams and nightmares in the form of buffs or moodlets. Let me walk you through the amazing features of this mod!

A Multitude of Dreamscapes and Nightmarish Adventures:

Experience the wonders of dreams and nightmares as your Sims' inner thoughts come to life. After waking up from a restful sleep of at least 30 minutes (in Sims time), your Sims will be graced with a buff or moodlet reflecting their dreams, adding depth and complexity to their emotional journey.

This mod offers an extensive collection of dreams and nightmares, catering to both kids and adults. Kids can explore over 30 unique dreams and 30 nightmares, while adults have access to more than 180 dreams and 110 nightmares. Get ready to be captivated by the diversity and creativity within these dreamscapes. And let me tell you, I had an absolute blast adding hidden pop culture Easter eggs throughout these extraordinary dreams!

Unique Experiences for Every Sim:

Every Sim is special, and "Dreams & Nightmares" celebrates their individuality. With traits, age, and life states taken into account, your Sims will receive dreams and nightmares that are distinct to their personality and circumstances.

Among the vast array of dreams available, there's one dream that I find particularly intriguing and noteworthy: the "Wet Dream" This dream provides a unique experience for teenage male Sims. They can further explore this topic by researching it on computers or discussing it with their parents or friends, adding a touch of realism to their lives.

The "Vanished Dream" Buff:

In the realm of dreams, even the most vivid experiences can slip away like a wisp of smoke, so just like in real life, Sims sometimes forget their dreams. If this happens, they will receive the "Vanished Dream" buff. This sad buff reflects the disappointment of forgetting a dream and it varies depending on the Sim's age.

Dream Sharing and New Interactions:

I've always been passionate about adding fresh interactions to my mods, and this one is no exception. Sims can now share their dreams with others. Engage in captivating conversations with friends, family, and loved ones on a deeper level by discussing their dreams. From animated conversations about the last dream to intriguing discussions about the latest nightmare, you'll discover a variety of unique responses and buffs, creating dynamic and immersive interactions each time.

DreamCatcher: Your Sims' Dream Companion:

Take control of your sims' dreams and nightmares with DreamCatcher, a website available on all in-game computers. Let's explore the features DreamCatcher has to offer!

Seeking Help from a Therapist: Embark on a therapeutic adventure as your Sims seek guidance and support from DreamCatcher's virtual therapists. This immersive experience allows Sims to process their troubling dreams, gain insights, and find solace in the waking world.

SleepGuard Tablets for Peaceful Nights: Discover the magic of SleepGuard Tablets, available through DreamCatcher's store. These tablets provide 24 hours of uninterrupted sleep, free from the disturbance of nightmares. Help your Sims enjoy serene and rejuvenating nights with this dream-enhancing solution.

Dreamland Diffusers for Nighttime Protection: Create a tranquil and protective atmosphere for your Sims' dream adventures with the Dreamland Diffusers. These essential oil diffusers not only guard against nightmares but also offer customizable lighting options. Set the perfect ambiance for dream-filled nights as your Sims bask in soothing scents and gentle illumination. (Note: The diffusers' effectiveness relies on the Sim being nearby or in the same room).

Unlocking New Social Interactions: Engage in captivating conversations with friends, family, and strangers about DreamCatcher. Unlock two new social interactions with unique and dynamic answers.

Two Brand New Reward Traits:

Eternal Dreamer:

Gameplay Impact:

- Sims with this trait will experience dreams more frequently, while nightmares are a rare occurrence.

- Since they have good dreams all the time, your Sim will improve the skills related to creativity 20% faster than those without the trait. It's like a creativity supercharge!

- They recharge their energy 50% faster and see a slower drain, losing it 30% slower than usual. It's a win-win for both night owls and early risers.

- If they have 5 good dreams in a row, they'll get a special buff that makes them learn creativity-related skills even faster—by 50%:

- But it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Since they're so used to having dreams fuel their creativity, when a nightmare comes in, it hits them hard. Their creativity-related skills growth drops by 20%, and their energy drains 30% faster, making them function like a regular Sim for a bit:

- Sims with this trait can now perform a unique interaction: Gift a Night of Dreaming Harmony (usable once a day per sim). This interaction grants both the Eternal Dreamer and the sim receiving the gift a beneficial buff (with the buff description varying based on the recipient's age). The sims getting this Dreaming Harmony will enjoy 24 hours of nightmare-free dreams thanks to this interaction.

Tormented Sleeper:

Gameplay Impact:

- Sims with this trait will experience nightmares more frequently, while dreams are a rare occurrence.

- Since they have bad dreams all the time, your Sim will improve the skills related to creativity 20% slower than those without the trait. It's like their dreams are on a creativity strike!

- They recharge their energy 20% slower and see a faster drain, losing it 20% faster than usual. Night owls and early birds, prepare to struggle!

- If they have 5 nightmares in a row, they'll get a special debuff that makes them learn creativity-related skills 50% slower:

- It's not all nightmares and cold sweats, though. Since these Sims are so used to the bad, a good dream really flips the script. When they have a good dream, their creativity-related skills grow 20% faster, and their energy drains 30% slower, leveling the playing field for a bit:

- Sims with this trait can now perform a unique interaction: Share a Night of Tormented Sleep (usable once a day per sim). This interaction gives both the Tormented Sleeper and the sim receiving the vibe a brand new buff (with the buff description varying based on the recipient's age). Sims experiencing Tormented Sleep will have nightmares if they go to bed within 24 hours.

Sims with any of these traits also gain the ability to sense whether another sim had a dream or a nightmare, allowing them to initiate conversations about it. These two interactions, "You Had a Dream, Right? Tell Me About It!" and "You Had a Nightmare, Didn't You? Let's Talk It Out," trigger a reaction in both the initiating and the targeted sim, reflected by a corresponding buff (the buff description for the recipient sim varies based on their age):

I've also implemented some rules around these new traits to balance the gameplay. Just a heads-up so you know they're part of the mix.

- Sims can't have both 'Eternal Dreamer' and 'Tormented Sleeper' traits at the same time. So if you purchase one of the traits in the Rewards Store while having one of them already, the new one will take the place of the old one.

- An Eternal Dreamer won't be able to gift a night of Dreaming Harmony to another Eternal Dreamer.

- A Tormented Sleeper won't be able to share a night of Tormented Sleep with another Tormented Sleeper.

- Sims can either share their latest nightmare or their most recent dream with others, but not both at the same time. Seems like their memories aren't too great—once they've moved onto a new dream or nightmare, the previous one's outta there! (Next update: Dream Diaries?👀)

- If a Sim has the 'Nightmares Protection' buff from SleepGuard Tablets, the 'Refreshing Aroma' buff from a diffuser, or the 'Disable Nightmares for This Sim' cheat enabled, then Tormented Sleep shared by a Tormented Sleeper won't touch 'em. They're basically sleep Teflon at that point! 😴

- Whether it's an Eternal Dreamer trying to gift a 'Night of Dreaming Harmony' to a Sim with a 'Night of Tormented Sleep,' or vice versa, the original buff holds its ground. Neither will override the other, and both the giver and receiver end up with a brand new moodlet (with the buff description varying based on the recipient's age). So yeah, don't expect any dreamy miracles here:

Upcoming Updates and Exciting Features:

I am constantly working to enhance the Sims' dream experiences with regular updates. Here's a sneak peek of what's to come:

- More dreams and nightmares with deeper impacts on gameplay and Sims' lives.

- In-person therapy sessions with the DreamCatcher feature.

- Expanded therapy options on DreamCatcher, addressing not only nightmares but other situations.

- New objects, including more diffusers, pills, and dream catchers.

- SleepGuard Tablets for kids, with adult supervision and half the effect.

- A new life state: The Dreamer

- A new type of death.

- New job options including Dream Interpreter.

- And much more!

***

Languages:

- English (Default)

- Spanish (Default)

- French (by Miyaji)

- Chinese (by Orchard Team)

- Russian (by Origamika Group)

***

Download Links:

- Beta Access: Patreon

- Early Access: Patreon

- Free Access: CurseForge

***

💖Support and Patreon💖

If you enjoy the Dreams & Nightmares Mod and want to support its ongoing development, consider joining my Patreon community. Your support enables me to dedicate more time and resources to improving and expanding my mods, ensuring an even more immersive experience for all Simmers. Thank you for joining me on this incredible journey into the realm of dreams and nightmares.

Let "Dreams & Nightmares" awaken your Sims' imaginations like never before. Happy dreaming!

[the-nanowrimo-chronicles]

Discords, forums and a decade’s worth of allegations: how Nanowrimo started a revolution against it.

I’m just gonna copy paste the Reddit post since. I cannot figure Tumblr out. So I apologise for the weird formatting. If you’d rather read the Reddit posts:

Trigger warnings: child abuse, assault, predators, racism, fetishes, ableism, terrorism, bombings, and just plain abuse. 

This will also include brief mentions of religion. 

**Terms used in the Nanowrimo community:**

Nanowrimo: national novel writing month: a writing challenge to write 50k words in November. This is also used to refer to the organisation, a Californian 501c3 that the challenge originates from, with a website and a forum. However the challenge can be done without the organisation. Often called ‘nano’ for short. 

Young Writers’ Program: a Nanowrimo run platform aimed at people under 18. A separate site with classrooms and its own separate forum. The forum is for people aged 13-18. Often called ‘YWP’ for short.

Municipal Liasions: community organisers responsible for one region. This could be a city or a country depending on size and population. They help organise local events and mod their regional forums. Municipal Liasions are not paid. There are several hundreds of them. Often called ‘MLs’ for short. 

Christian Teens Together: a group on the main Nanowrimo forums, and the largest group on the forums. Despite the name the group is not entirely composed of Christians or teens, however that is where the group originates. The majority of the group are minors. Often called ‘CTT’ for short.

Random Thoughts and Exclamations: the main thread of the YWP forums, basically a general. Often called ‘RTAE’ for short.

Prior to the meltdown, Nanowrimo had around 15 salaried staff. These are collectively referred to as HQ. However, they also have several forum moderators. These receive a $100 check at the end of the year, but are mostly considered volunteers. These mods have no involvement in the main site. However, some staff that worked on the forums were salaried and had main site involvement and so will be considered part of HQ unless stated later on.

 **Scam sponsorships.**

In December 2022, a group of Nanowrimo users raised concerns about a pair of vanity publishers that had sponsored the Nanowrimo challenge. (A vanity publisher or vanity press is a publisher where the author pays the costs and surrenders a large portion of the rights to their work.) Nanowrimo had promoted discounts for these publishers, Inkitt and Manuscripts, to winners of its challenge. Staff and mods suspended and muted multiple accounts who raised the initial concerns, but eventually allowed a forum thread discussing concerns to remain. One of the affected users explained the concerns as follows:

> Now that I’ve been unbanned, I will try to keep the last 24 hours of thoughts…concise. Inkitt should NEVER have been accepted as a NaNoWriMo sponsor. They have changed business models every few years, and every business model has involved using up the first pub rights of any author who submits, WHICH IS A BIG DEAL, and promising them sketchy ‘prizes’ or ‘contracts’ in return. People who have given them a try also say that getting their content removed is a nightmare and they had to threaten legal action. These are just the starting points.

> There are blog posts about them from many authors dating back to at least 2016, [including my own](https://wrrrdnrrrdgrrrl.com/2016/05/23/inkitt-scam-spam-no-thank-you-maam/), that are easily discoverable by searching “Inkitt scam.” None of this should ever have happened.

> That said, it happened. And the mods panicked, and I went and wrote a [whole new blog](https://wrrrdnrrrdgrrrl.com/2022/11/30/on-nanowrimo-inkitt-and-being-an-author/ ) (which I will update soon to reflect NaNo’s better handling of things today) to warn people away from Inkitt because I wasn’t allowed to do so on the forums. And because I have some audience and writer friends, that got around, and [Victoria Strauss](https://twitter.com/victoriastrauss/status/1598114401818902529) got involved, and eventually we got here.

The following day, the Executive Director responded to the concerns with this message:

> I appreciate everyone’s thoughts and feedback, and want to start with an apology that our vetting process hasn’t met the high values we place on our community care. It shouldn’t have come to this (like so many of you said), but now that it has, we’re taking it as a learning moment to improve our sponsorship processes and find ways to dig deeper into an evaluation of a company.

> We’ve also ended the sponsorship with Inkitt and Manuscripts.

> Currently, the vetting process involves talking to writers, editors, or those working in the writing/publishing “ecosystem,” and then interviewing the potential companies. We often have a long-term relationship with a company and work with them year-over-year, but as the writing/publishing landscape changes so dramatically every year, we often find out about new companies and reach out to them or they reach out to us. We will do a more thorough evaluation of these processes and policies as part of our 2023 planning process to see what changes we need to make. Our goal will be to ensure our policies are in line with our organizational values, and to make sure the process is more transparent. For example, we’re discussing how we can ensure that a wider range of community and trusted industry voices are heard in this process, and on that note, we have already asked Victoria Strauss from Writer Beware to act as a consultant. We’re really pleased that she’s generously agreed to this, as this is her area of expertise and her ethical standards are admirably high. Also, she’s been passionately committed to analyzing products and services for writers for so long.

> We’ll also be sure to consult the resources you’ve already named, such as the various forum threads where you all have been sharing your experiences with companies.

> Thank you again for raising your concerns. We take your feedback very seriously and center it in our plans to care for the community. I’m not just saying that—this has been a valuable learning moment to help us do a better job of vetting sponsors more thoroughly. Your voices are the most important thing we consider when making decisions—not sponsors, but you. I’m sorry that it hasn’t always felt like that in the past, and hope that we can make sure it does in the future. Like you, we think NaNoWriMo should be a place where writers can come for trusted resources. We’re disappointed in ourselves that we lost that trust, and we hope to regain it. I invite you to send on feedback at any time to sponsorships@nanowrimo.org.

While Inkitt and Manuscripts were removed as sponsors, it recently emerged that Inkitt was a major donor for Nanowrimo. Some users were beginning to feel that Nanowrimo was protecting their own interests over the interests of their users, which only got worse when new allegations came out the following year.

**Inaction against predators.**

In May 2023, a group of users raised allegations about a moderator of Christian Teens Together. The [allegations](https://nitter.net/Arumi_kai/status/1722007756058574916#m) were that this moderator was luring minors onto a fetish site they ran. The allegations were sent to the Executive Director and the Director of Programs, but no actions were taken after a month. An FBI report had already been filed, but the fetish site was being scrubbed, suggesting that the staff there had been tipped off after the allegations. The group built a new case and after public pressure, got the moderator removed for violations of the forum Code of Conduct after they started threatening the group and the Nanowrimo organisation offsite. This moderator could be a whole post on their own, and has used sockpuppet accounts to lurk on the forums and has commented on the situation on their tumblr. They are often referred to as Mod X, and will be referred to as such in this essay.

In June, a thread on moderation was opened, and a discussion began about the culture of CTT, where it became clear that Mod X had isolated the group and emotionally abused them. It was also revealed that the CTT had a ‘three strikes and shutdown’ system for a group with over a thousand members. One user explained the problem as follows:

> How the CTT members were given only three strikes for over one thousand people is, frankly, appalling and obscene. I can understand treating them as a group; if you give them all three strikes, that’s over three thousand strikes. But they need more than three. But even with that, hanging that last strike over their head for over six months is unacceptable, and yes, I said it before and I’ll say it again, it is emotionally abusive to tell them that one more strike and they’re getting shut down for over six months. Never knowing who’s going to make the mistake that gets them shut down or when, and worrying about when someone messes up. Worrying that they’re going to be one that messes up and is blamed by the group. Terrified of reporting things because what if that report is the reason their community is shut down? 

More users came forward with grooming allegations, but these posts were frozen and hidden. However, the cat was out of bag, at least on the main forums. And in a retrospective thread on the 10th of November, a former YWP user spoke up about a similar situation that had happened the month before.

> They did this to the YWP too. When a message was sent outlining evidence of a predator it was ignored for 3 days (iirc) and initially responded with ‘we reviewed this account and found nothing that broke our rules’ only after it was posted publicly on the forums. They did take the account down, but only hours later (once we had made a major fuss with pretty much everyone who knew the situation calling the mods out) and with no further communication for two days, which sent us into a spiral of panic and teens leaving as they didn’t feel safe on the platform.

The following day, the COO responded to this post with:

> Hi there, I wanted to speak to this directly since it relates to a lot of the youth safety issues people are bringing up, and YWP has different systems. First off, we did indeed look into the participant that was flagged on YWP. [YWP lead] and [Director of Programs] discussed and investigated on Oct. 3; they responded on Oct. 4. Our search into their history and their other social media accounts did not find evidence that they were a predator or someone else than the person they claimed to be. We were wrong to say that nothing crossed the lines set by our codes of conduct, and we should have issued a reminder about those codes. However, no violation crossed the line that would require banning. We kept a close eye on this account following the reports and encouraged participants to follow their guts and keep a wide berth. After the account was suspended due to user flags, we agreed their account should not be reinstated.

> In the long term, we’re bringing in additional moderators in the YWP forums. Role plays occasionally skirt the codes around keeping it PG and partly in response to this situation we’re adding a volunteer mod next week who will just be monitoring role plays and the forum for personal conversations, where the majority of these flags came from. 

This response was immediately torn apart by the adults on the thread, while more members of the YWP started speaking out about what they had been dealing with for years. 

**The Wild West of the YWP.**

The YWP had two or three mods, which changed across the years due to differing roles. These were members of HQ, and now have all been fired or quit. These were: a Lead Forums Moderator who resigned in October 2023 and had stopped working with the YWP a while before that, a Community Manager who was put on leave at the beginning of November 2023, and the aforementioned YWP lead and Director of Programs who were either fired or quit in December 2023.

There are three parts to the YWP: the individual users, which are under 18, the classrooms, which are controlled by a teacher and are meant for educational settings, and the forums, which are open to users aged 13-18 whether they’re writing individually or as part of a classroom.

However, investigation revealed that the security of these classrooms are remarkably lax. It only required an email, username and password for an ‘educator’ to set up a classroom, and student accounts didn’t even need an email. Multiple YWP users confirmed that they had used this to gain access to private messages, as the classrooms have a PM feature while the forums did not. On top of this, it was confirmed by a moderator that classrooms are basically unmoderated:

> it's almost impossible to moderate these. There was a rash a few years back of the kids themselves making classrooms and the only way I could track them was to manually go through the admin panel and look for the most recent ones and click. They're almost entirely disconnected from the moderation tools and are completely unmoderated unless someone in one reports something. I actually gave up even trying to patrol the classrooms in any form because there's too many and the admin tools suck.

And on the forums themselves, it only got worse. The moderation often ignored its users, and when they intervened, the intervention often worsened the situation. This got to the point that in August 2022, a group of users held a [strike](https://speak-out.carrd.co/) against the moderation due to neglect and incompetence. However, the problems only continued to grow, and in December 2022, there was a incident of a user faking a disorder and, when called out on it, sending death threats. This user also made accounts in order to impersonate and harass users on the sites. It was not uncommon for users to run others off the site, which, justified or not, was often fueled by lack of mod intervention. 

This came to a head in October 2023, when a predator was found and the moderation response was once again inadequate. On the 1st of October, moderation was privately contacted  by a group of YWP users about a predator that had been on the forums for two years. After three days with no response and no action taken, the group took the information public and a mass flagging campaign began in order to gain the attention of the mods. And five hours after it began, a response was finally posted by the YWP lead:

> Ні,

Thanks for writing to us with your concerns, and for being so thorough keeping track of the places that made you uncomfortable.

> First of all, I want to say: good on you for following your gut. If you ever run into something online that makes you feel scared or worried or unsafe or just seems a little bit off, it's always okay to back away. Trust yourself, and don't do something that makes you feel uncomfortable, no matter who is asking you.

> The other moderators and I looked (and are continuing to look) more into this person, and from what we can tell, it seems like they are who they say they are. Nothing in their posts crosses the lines set by our Codes of Conduct (though they do come right up to the line sometimes). Like I said before, you can absolutely draw a boundary and not interact with them anymore. It just means we can't take any action on site besides marking their profile such that we pay extra attention to their posts, as well as the other account you flagged as a potential alt.

> If we notice anything in the future we can follow up on it more directly.

> Thank you for being so passionate and thorough about trying to make sure the YWP forums are a safe space, and let me know if you have any questions or want to talk anything through more.

This response was torn apart by the users, and 12 hours later people noticed that the threads the predator created had been taken down. However, there was no comment in the public moderation thread on the situation, and the users had no idea whether the account had been banned or not. This caused a mass panic, and several users pulled back or left the platform due to safety concerns. 

Early on the 6th of October, a user tried to goad the moderators into responding to the mess by posting a message to the mods in the official announcements forum, which was supposed to be mod-only:

> There is always an explosion of newbies in November, and you have children as young as 13 here. And your inaction is making the site dangerous. We are being forced to defend ourselves against something we should not be dealing with because you can't be bothered.

> This is more than inaction. This is dangerous incompetence. And don't respond to this with another 'we'll do better' apology, because they never last. I've seen this cycle too many times. Tell us that he's gone, that we don't have to worry about him, and tell us what you're doing to make sure this doesn't happen again. And stop forcing children to be the adults in your place.

However, this post remained up for around 12 hours. At that point, the moderation decided to close the forums for a week, giving the users only a day’s notice. And when they reopened, they threatened to make the forums for writing topics only. Although they walked this back due to user pressure and claimed it was due lack of staff, it came off to some users as a punishment for complaining. 

There were more incidents over the next month, and these were mentioned in the retrospective thread, which came as a complete shock to the adults, who had been told that a large part of the funding was going to the YWP. Some began to call for the moderators to resign:

> I sincerely hope they are all drafting their resignation letters. we won’t even give them grief this time for writing it together and recycling the same wording.

> they had their chance to listen to their users, to develop action plans and timeline and to publicly respond. they chose not to do that and knowingly let abuse and harm continue on their watches. both here and on ywp. 

> resign or get fired. either way this is no longer their house, they are being evicted.

**The Nanopocalypse.**

The Nanowrimo Board intervened in the evening of the 12th of the November, having been contacted by users in the retrospective thread. They immediately set the main forums to read only barring threads they made to discuss the many issues. However the YWP forums were not immediately closed, and so the users from the retrospective reported back on RTAE. 

Two hours after the main forums were closed, a YWP user received a message from the Director of Programs threatening to ban the user. Moments later this user and two others were temporarily banned from the forums. And the forums exploded on both sides. On the main forums:

> Do something for these YWP kids being banned for speaking up about their abuse.

And on the YWP: 

> no cause if you're so threatened by MINORS joking at your expense take a good long look in the mirror

The same user on commented on the main thread:

> Just so yall know, the ywp is honestly going to hell rn. People are getting banned, some of the people who talked to you yesterday got banned for saying enough. I got warnings for saying that adults shouldn’t be threatened by teens making jokes. It’s a really bad situation and a lot of people are stressed and overwhelmed

One user commented on how bad the YWP had gotten as follows: 

>FOR REAL !!! i joined when i was 16?? THE FIRST FUCKING THING I DID WAS MODERATE. i had to skip the classic nano ywp cringe newbie stage because i had to swoop into an argument that was obvious a moderator wasn’t going to ever deal with. and i did that for like the year and a half i was on nano. and like i don’t give a shit in the sense it doesn’t hold a candle to being 14 and moderating for three years straight but. the amount of power hierarchies the ywp has because of us who. play mod. it’s stressful and not fun and i would not wish it upon my worst enemies. this might be petty but? i’d pay real money that none of the staff team remembers me despite me doing their jobs since the moment i clicked create account

> i have not seen a single case of

someone getting fairly banned, nor of someone problematic and upsetting having consequences for their

actions. 

>nano is a weird place because a lot of shit happened offsite (ex; my connection to [redacted]. the nanoer who was lying and trauma dumping to me and some of my close friends. that all happened in “adult nano” dms. but we were open about it. and even with multiple call-out posts in places with chats that don’t bury posts often and theoretically ones mods should be checking? nothing was done.) but the guessing game on when mods finally arrive to a scene is awful. the brace for impact everyone collectively did when

someone finally showed up? was awful. these are teenagers. and when these teens can’t trust the moderators who’re supposed to be monitoring their website, who are they supposed to trust?

A few hours into the board thread, YWP users called out one of the accounts on the main forum for being a predator. The group confirmed that this person had been removed from the YWP but that they had been allowed to remain on the main site. Users confronted this account directly:

> correct me if i’m wrong (i’m not) but i do remember you being one of (if not the most) manipulative, spiteful, maliciously incompetent people i have ever encountered. do you, perchance, remember all the times you told that little 15 year old the sexual things you wanted to do to her? i remember. i remember everything you said. i might not be able to prove all of it but we know. we didn’t forget. playing dumb won’t save you now, boy.

> don’t you dare sit here and pretend this  was an okay thing for you to do. you got suspended but you’re still here talking aren’t you ?? it’s two years old we still have the very same predator (most people active in the lounge in the last year or two [in the ywp] knows you. no one who knows you likes you.) roaming the adult site. how is this not an issue that needs to be addressed?

The account was suspended a few days later. 

That night, the board confirmed that they were unaware that the YWP was a separate site, and the YWP forums were shut. With no read only mode on the YWP, it erupted into chaos. Users said their goodbyes, and some expressed their anger with the moderation for how they turned out. This led to the Director of Programs threatening to close the forums early, despite the users only having a few hours to say goodbye anyway. One user put it as simply as:

> me when my entire community of the last three years is being ripped away lol

And the last three posts?

> FUCK THE MODS FR

> im gonna miss this website so much. love you all and its not our fault this is happening, it’s the mods stay safe stay amazing and love you all, youre the best.

> Im so sorry the mods destroyed this. hate that we have to lose this beautiful thing because of them. I have one last

thing to say: 

>FUCK. THE. MODS.

> Imao

And with that, the weekend from hell was over. 

But the Nanopocalypse had barely begun.

**It wasn't just kids that were abused.**

The board threads went down a few rabbit holes, but it was a testimony on the 28th of November that started the next fire. This came from an ML, and spoke of a situation a decade before. 

> In 2012 (might have been 2011) I had an adult participant explain the explicit omegaverse erotica that she was writing to a 14 year old. She then left her laptop open to go and get a drink, with the instruction “i’m not telling you to read it, but I’m not not telling you that, and if I just leave my laptop open and you happen to see it, there’s nothing wrong with that, is there?”

> The teenager approached me before NaNo the next year and told me about this. She said that it made her extremely uncomfortable and that the adult participant had spent a lot of time telling her how clever she (the teen) was, how she was more mature than other teens, and how other adults just didn’t understand. Which is all classic grooming. The teen asked if this person was going to be at events that year, because she didn’t want to see her again.

> I contacted HQ with this, and asked if they would back me up if I told this person that they were no longer welcome at our events.

> The response I got was that not only would they not back me up, I was not allowed to ban this person from our events because they had to be held in a public space and be open to anyone who wanted to come and write.

> the teenager never came to another in-person event.

> The adult in question came back, and that year groomed and sexually assaulted a 17-year-old who she met at our events. I didn’t learn about this until several months afterwards. I once again contacted HQ, and was told that I still couldn’t ask her to stay away from our region because the incident took place after our event and we weren’t allowed to ban people based on behaviour outside the scope of our events

>I then posed the question: If the abusive ex of one of our wrimos turned up at an event, with the apparent intent to write with us, could I ask them to leave?

> Once again the answer was no, unless there was evidence of a police report, or the ex became abusive during the event. It was heavily implied that the victim ought to leave if they were uncomfortable.

> I had no training in how to handle this kind of thing, and I received the opposite of support.

> Having heard stories from other MLs I am convinced that the only reason I was not removed from the position is that I chose not to fight them.

The ML spoke more about trainings regarding racism.

>It’s been videos (I think 2 were workshops, but they were only run in US timezones so the rest of us just had to watch the videos and read transcripts) which have so far been exclusively on a US-centric approach to race and racism. One of the first 2 was run by a white person with a… questionable background… And [Director of Community Engagement]’s response to that being raised as an issue boiled down to “we have some MLs who won’t listen if it’s a black person”. Honestly, if you can’t handle being taught about racial issues by a person of that race, maybe you shouldn’t be in a position of power? 

> We have the ML Agreement (which, until very recently, forbade MLs from criticising NaNoWriMo in any way. So recently that [Director of Community Engagement] used that clause to remove at least one ML in the last year without knowing/remembering that they took that out).

The discussion quickly pivoted to the treatment of MLs, and to the ML discord server. This was considered unofficial, but needed to get in touch with the Director of Community Engagement, who oversaw the MLs. The user who broke the news about Mod X gave a summary of the problems there:

> A ML was banned from the ML discord for suspicion of "leaking information shared in the ML discord with non-MLs". 

> I've seen the (frankly a bit baffling) accusation by MLs (both on and off the main discord) that I have ulterior motives in bringing light to the issues facing the NaNoWriMo organization, so I'll reiterate - again - that l'm only one of a very large group of users over multiple offsite platforms who have been documenting these issues.

> The only reason I'm fairly visible in this situation is because it was decided my twitter platform was the best chance to bring wider attention to the issues in a way HQ would listen to (since efforts here on the forums were being shut down, silenced or obfuscated). I want to note that it's extremely concerning that the default in the ML discord is to focus on "someone leaking information or sneaking into our server" rather than address the systemic problems that have led to so many MLs feeling like they need to seek outside help for their treatment by the ML community. Not to mention the harm of indulging that paranoia when energy would be better focused on strategies to address the crisis facing the NaNo community.

> The main ML discord has obtained a list of users on NaNoWriMo discord servers that allow open criticism of HQ, and is kicking any ML who appears on the member list of the dissenting servers.

However, it seems that only two MLs were kicked for being in a dissenting server.

The kicked ML explained:

> I was kicked out for supposedly sharing screenshots from the ML discord with other people. I only know this, because when I said "hey, I can't find the ml discord any more" another ML went 'holy shit, that was you?' and told me what was being said about me.

> They also told me that what I had supposedly done was not against the rules at the time. [server admin] changed the rules after she kicked me out for "breaking" them. 

There was another ML testimony that deserves its own section and we’ll get to in a second, but a response to it brought a new and horrifying light on the actions of the Director of Community Engagement.

> I’ve mentioned I was co-ML 2018, 2019, and 2020. My region had no ML for 2021 because my previous co-ML and I protested how [Director of Community Engagement] treated me.

> So. I am autistic as fuck. I am also physically disabled, and legally blind. We were promised access to the new 2019 forums months before NaNo, since we were MLs.

> I got access two weeks before NaNo.

> Two weeks, for my blind, autistic ass to figure out these very non-intuitive forums before time to kick things off.

> Clearly, this was not really a possibility for me. Because, again, autistic and blind.

> So my co-ML and I decided that I would handle all the online-but-offsite things (Facebook and the discord server I’d set up the year before) while he handled in-person and on-site things. This worked out great for us; our region was well taken care of between the two of us.

> I put so much love and care into my region’s discord server when I created it in 2018 (I had unexpectedly moved a few hours from my region in October, so the three of us co-MLs for that year worked out together what I would do to still hold my end of things up). I was cheering people on on the daily, running daily virtual write-ins for anyone who wanted to pop in and write with me. Any time my co-ML had a physical write-in, I scheduled a virtual one for the same time for anyone who couldn’t go in person

for whatever reason, and a co-ML would connect on their device so that the in-person and the virtual participants could talk to each other before time to write. For the 16th, I scheduled a full 24 hours virtual write-in that people could pop in and out of as they wanted to try to double up their word counts (I ran it the full 24 hours myself and then went to bed afterwards). I was even able to run some of the virtual write-ins from the hospital. I had so many people thank me for it, because they lived too far to make it in person easily, or they worked nights, or they were disabled, or they were immunocompromised so couldn’t go in person.

> Since that worked so well, I also did it for 2019, except even more because I loved my region and I love my people. I love cheering people on. I love helping them figure out a sticky problem in their project. I love just celebrating that they wrote, whether they wrote a full 50k or not, they tried this impossible thing and they did their best and that’s what NaNo is about. I worked my ass off in 2019 to make up for the fact that I couldn’t deal with the new site. Because, once again, I am autistic and blind.

> But also, before I move on to 2020, let’s talk about some of the gaslighting bullshit that HQ fed us. And yes, it was gaslighting I do not use that term lightly.

There was no validator. We were promised there would be a validator. We tell our regions “don’t worry, we’ve been promised there’ll be a validator, it should be ready in a few days”. Then HQ says “oh, sorry, it’ll be a little longer, you’ll have it by the end of the month, though, we super promise”. So we tell our regions, “sorry, it’s not going to be a couple days but they promise we’ll have it by the end of the month”. HQ was still telling us to tell our regions that the validator would be there by the end of the month even after HQ had decided there would be no fucking validator, not even by the end of the month, just never. When we were like “the fuck??? why would you tell us this, then???” we were told that we had just misunderstood what they meant. Gaslighting. That is actual fucking gaslighting.

> So now let’s go to 2020. Two successful years running my Region’s discord - and we added a Whole [country] discord, too! Go us!!!

> I re-apply to co-ML again. Don’t hear anything, assume that I didn’t hear anything because I was approved. In May, Sarah posts in the ML Facebook that if we re-applied and didn’t get an email from her to email her and let her know. So I emailed her. She had forgotten to email me. She had set my application aside because was I sure I could be a good ML since I had barely posted to the site in 2019. The year that the entire site changed and my blind autistic ass could not navigate it. I explained the situation, that I hadn’t been able to navigate the site so my co-ML and I had divvied things up so that I could run all the online-but-offsite things, etc. I told her about the region Discord and all the virtual write-ins.

> [Director of Community Engagement] says that all my efforts the previous years don’t count because it’s not on the site. That off-site can’t be moderated so it’s really discouraged that regions have anything online but offsite. She emailed my co-ML to tell them that she’d find a co-ML that could support them better. My co-ML responded along the lines

of “if you take [ML] away from me, I fucking quit”. So [Director of Community Engagement] tells them that I’m on probation but not to let me know. Which. They did anyway because they’re also one of my best friends and platonic life partners.

> I’m fine now, it’s been three years, I can deal. But when I say that being told that everything I’d set up didn’t count, that broke me. I had worked so hard, literally from the fucking hospital, to be told that it didn’t count. That the thing that I had set up as an accommodation for disabled or immunocompromised didn’t count. 

> We MLed for 2020, because we finish our commitments. When 2021 rolled around and no one volunteered to ML, I still took care of my region. I still ran the discord, I still ran the virtual events, I still answered their questions and cheered them on. Because I’m not going to leave my people out to dry even if the person in charge doesn’t care.

> So. That was 2019 and the early parts of 2020. And it’s why I will never ML again while [Director of Community Engagement] is in charge.

> When I volunteered as a moderator, it’s because I genuinely wanted to help the community that I care so

much about. But I volunteered under [Community Manager]. [Community Manager] wasn’t perfect, but [Community Manager] cared. Whatever her

failings, she fucking cared about us. I told [Community Manager] when I disagreed with her, but I did it to her face and I tried to be kind. (Not necessarily nice, but kind. Because kind will tell you when you’re fucking up. Nice will not.)

> Right before NaNo started, I was no longer helping [Community Manager], I was now having to answer to [Director of Community Engagement]. So maybe I was more reactive than I would have been had [Director of Community Engagement] not broken me three years ago. Because of that, I tried to temper my reactions more, to make sure that I was reacting to the actual thing and not to who was saying it.

I have had it confirmed since I quit that [Director of Community Engagement] saw me as a problem and was trying to make me quit. And, well, she succeeded. Because I did quit when [Director of Community Engagement] said that mods would now be silencing any criticism of HQ.

> I love this community, or I would have left in 2020. I love the people, and I love the spirit of NaNo. I love that the spirit of NaNo lives in all of us, that we all have this little flame inside all of us that’s part of the bigger fire. I love that we come together to cheer each other on, and help each other when we’re stuck.

> But fuck the way MLs like me were treated. If I was treated this way, I bet there are others.

As of writing this, the Director of Community Engagement is still in her position and still oversees MLs.

So the MLs had to tolerate ableism and racism to do their jobs. And it only got worse. Let’s go back to that other testimony, which revealed:

**That time HQ made a game with a terrorist in it.**

Yep. 

> In 2017 the staff decided to roll out an in-office game they had apparently played amongst themselves to the wider public.

> This game was a treasure hunt type activity, where one had to stop a terrorist called Ivan the Icy from blowing up NaNo and the world.

> This hunt included a now removed video of a very convincingly dressed man monologue at the camera about how he was going to bomb NaNo. So convincing in fact it took very long into the video before signs of it being fake emerged.

> Several faked emails sent to you, in that same vein that eventually led to a hidden page on the site where you had to disarm a bomb. Failing to do so would make it explode. Granted, upon exploding it filled your screen with penguins, but until then it was far too realistic.

> This was not communicated to MLs prior to sending out. Nothing had been mentioned. If it had we could have told them why this was a bad idea. The game might work in office where everyone knows each other’s sensitivities and humour (although even then one can wonder why this topic), but on a global scale this is tone deaf at best.

> MLs were the ones who raised the alarm and contacted HQ as quickly as we noticed. We had to explain in detail the potential ramifications, after which action was taken. We then helped NaNo cover this up.

> Note that at this point we had already lost so much faith in HQ that we were actively brainstorming how we could potentially flag it to youtube and facebook to get the video taken down if HQ would not respond to us as they often didn’t.

> To explain just how tone deaf this game was. The very convincing video was posted (not used) on 9/11. This was the year after the bombing in Brussels during NaNo. Two years after the bombing and shootings in Paris that had the Parisian Wrimos stuck in a write-in near the bomb site and active shooters for hours. And the same year a bomb had been detonated in the Manchester arena.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, a user who was on the YWP at the time confirmed that there was a YWP element:

> I didn’t find out that this came up in conversation yesterday until today but I feel like I need to add that the YWP had a dedicated forum thread to Ivan the Icy and was encouraged to participate and solve the terrorism scavenger hunt

> Yeah the terrorism scavenger hunt was a whole thing. I couldn’t even solve it because it was so heavily locked behind Facebook so I didn’t find out the full implications until the “apology” was sent out, but we on the YWP had an entire forum thread created by the mods (I want to say [YWP lead]) dedicated to solving it

So. That was a thing. Moving on.

**The board drank HQ’s kool-aid.**

The board was originally relatively helpful when they first intervened, but things soon took a turn. They took a break over American Thanksgiving [20th-26th November], and the responses soured following the break. The first clue of this was their defensive attitude towards the Executive Director’s $128K salary, when users figured out that since Nanowrimo ran a ‘salary first, operating budget second’ model, the operating budget was around $88K.

However, it was a comment about what Nanowrimo meant to the board member replying that started the anti-board attitude:

> Until two weeks ago, I had never used the forums; they just aren’t my thing. I mention all of this to say that not everybody who is part of this community hinges their experience, sense of belonging, or sense of value for NaNoWriMo on the forums. Part of my love for/experience of NaNo was doing a weekend writing retreat every November. I have very fond memories of these the years I did them. NaNo takes different forms for different people.

And when questioned about how this came across from an economic perspective, the elaboration was as follows:

> I am going on a writing retreat this weekend with my regular crew. It involves renting an AirBnB and each of us paying $200-$300 plus preparing one meal during the course of the weekend.

The fact that the first thing given as what nano meant to the board was a $200 writing retreat came off as inconsiderate in part due to reasons I’ll discuss later. 

The next red flag was a reply in response to the idea having staff credentials in their account bios:

> Frankly, this isn’t a huge priority given that we’re asking staff to focus on other issues and since it’s pretty easy to look people up on LinkedIn. In a previous thread, someone posted the LinkedIn profiles of staffers.

> Again, we don’t view ourselves as concealing this information. Our staff bios are pretty standard and this information is available online.

However, users quickly pointed out that since the board member used their pen name, they couldn’t find their LinkedIn.

A few comments in a question and answer thread were also received poorly:

> The Board recognizes that people want answers now. After all, THEY ARE SHOUTING AT US IN ALL CAPS.

> We get that people ARE UPSET but we can’t do much about unrealistic expectations.

However, it was one of their last responses that really cemented their downfall:

> That is not what [other user] said. Please answer the actual question that was asked.

> And get better at reading comprehension, christ.

> Thank you for proving why the forums are so hard to moderate and for giving the Board reason to consider that we might never be able to make them safe. Because how can anybody feel safe when confronted with vicious sarcasm after committing the utterly human fallibility of misreading?

The board stopped responding that weekend and closed the remaining threads on the 4th of December.

Well. Almost all of them. A few hours later users noticed that the ‘about the Nanowrimo board category’ thread wasn’t locked. Users scrambled to post a final goodbye to the forums in a similar manner to the YWP shutdown a few weeks before.

> It has been an honour being in the trenches with so many of you. I’m sorry that it’s coming down to this, but here is where we are.

> So many of us did not deserve the way we were treated. So many of us were failed by a staff that should have done better.

> And I will never NOT be angry that protecting [Mod X] was more important than protecting children.

And with the battlefield closed, everyone retreated to their discords to discuss.

**The donation begging.**

Despite making between $1-$2 million a year, Nanowrimo always seemed desperate for more money. The first sign of this was the aforementioned Inkitt donor situation, but the second was ‘double-up donation weekend’, where donors got twice as much goodies for donating. This was during the 4th and 5th of November, and while the actual number of emails sent is disputed, one user simply said:

> too fucking many

However it was probably between 8-11. Over two days. And people have alleged that they sent more in other days.

Graphics from a recent presentation also revealed that they were trying to solicit donations from people in poverty. The graphic said to donate less if

> * Love NaNoWriMo and want to support us alongside 8,000 annual community donors!

> * Have little to no savings

> * Work more than one job to meet your basic needs

> * Have dependents (children, elderly loved ones, household partners, neighbors, etc.)

Another graphic suggested that people making $12K a year should donate $300 a year.

However, it was revealed after the forums were shut that Nanowrimo had been soliciting donations from users of the YWP since 2016, and that it had been a regular thing since 2018. And only once did they add a disclaimer:

> P.S. Today is #Giving Tuesday, and this year NaNoWriMo has received a $20,000 matching donation. So if you know someone who might want to support our organization, encourage them to donate today and double their impact!

The emails did in fact link to the Nanowrimo store.

**And then the memes attacked.**

When the forums were shut on December 4th, the some regional forums ran by MLs were allowed to remain. However, around the 11th of December, a lifeboat group received intel that the regional forums were soon to close. The day following, there was a rush of posts in the regional forums from members of this group alerting regional members of this. There were also allegations that the Director of Community Engagement had her own reasons for shutting the forums down.

> The decision to close the regional forums over the holidays was indisputably an "oh fuck" maneuver. It was NOT to shield MLs from emergency situations that they wouldn't be able to handle in Sarah's absence. It was NOT out of concern for the MLs.

> And I have proof.

> On November 30th, [Director of Community Engagement] reached out to the MLs who had chosen to keep their forums open. She asked if we still wanted to keep them open. **And she presented us with the following additional options:**

> * 1) Set it to "only MLs can start threads"

> * **2) Set it to "only MLs can post" (i.e. use it only for announcements or record keeping)**

> * 3) Set some or all existing open threads to "slow mode" so they can't be posted in as frequently

> * 4) Close some or all of the existing open threads

> **Option 2 would have eliminated this concern entirely.** My region is set to Announcements-only right now. No one else can post there. So, unless the MLs themselves were the concern, there would have been no need to close the forums *entirely*. 

> Except... some MLs *are* giving HQ the migraine of their lives. **They need to silence ALL dissident voices, including those of MLs.**

> Hopefully you can view the form [Director of Community Engagement] sent MLs on November 30th here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdTbrRNrhfFV6HoXVUMWghomicP7xzvqWdLxC-R6cJ7Q8pfFA/viewform

And one member put it as:

> At this point I'm so confused, but what I see is HQ continuing to fuck up.

On the eve of the 15th of December, as the regional forums were taken down, the group discovered a thread on a regional forum, dedicated to memes about the Nanowrimo challenge. They flooded it with anti-HQ memes, in a last middle finger to HQ. A large amount of the memes consisted of promotional pictures of staff with humorous captions, such as The Good Place quote ‘I took the form of a 45 year old white man for a reason. I can only fail up.’, with the Executive Director photoshopped on. However, there was one that was purely text, from a YWP member: 

> she nano on my wrimo till i shut down the forums

As the memes winded down, users settled in for a night of watching the forums go down. It was a long night, with users posting haikus to pass the time.

> Just a reminder

> The forums will shut down soon

> Save the threads you want 

>Save the threads. You want 

> Community, but darkness  

>Prevails. Just for now.

However, some forums were never closed and are still open to this day.

**The smouldering remains.**

The entire YWP staff has gone, as has the social media manager. The Executive Director has been ‘demoted’ to Financial Stewardship Director. The current Executive Director is the board member that works under a pen name.

Nanowrimo has yet to reopen the forums, and besides disabling the ability to self-identify as an educator on the YWP, have yet to implement any of the changes that they promised. 

More information can be found at r/nanowrimo, which is an unofficial Nano group without staff involvement. 

[iamnotawomanimagod]

what do you expect, want, think H5 will be like? any ideas?

Oh man, so many. None of them are very organized right now, and they're all based off my memory of things H has said/done recently, and rumors online. But here are some of my thoughts!

(Also it's gonna get a little parasocial with a whole lot of speculation.)

I have to shout out some sources here: this one that breaks down all the clues on the formylasttrick website and this one keeping track of the rumors/theories that people have so far and also this one detailing some "insider" rumors about the release of the first single/video

In short:

People are picking up big 70s vibes, references to disappearing, references to magicians/magic tricks, some rabbit hole references, maybe something about Biblically accurate angels, etc.

I've also noticed Halsey referencing some things a lot in their social media posts. Spiders were a theme of the orchestral shows they did at the beginning of 2023 (merch was sold with the phrase "the life of the spider") and H recently posted an Instagram spread that included a photo of a spider on a piano with the caption "me writing." They've also posted more than one photo of herself in wings, specifically butterfly wings and angel wings. These posts often came with references to cocoons or rebirth.

Halsey has been going through it lately, and I think a big part of why they stepped away from social media so much is because they needed to grieve privately. Their relationship with Alev, their health struggles, the death threats and SWATting scares - I think their relative silence and distance in 2023 was to protect the space they needed to heal and grow while going through a lot of tough shit. And I think this is going to be a very vulnerable album as a result, because she's had time to try to process things with a bit more distance from the public eye. This album has also been hinted at as being "A2" - aka similar to Manic in that it's an Ashley album, and not as much of a Halsey album. Less dressed up in a concept or a specific aesthetic and more abstract and reflective of a her as a complex person.

Because of that, I really have no idea where the genre is going to go, or if we'll be able to really pinpoint an exact aesthetic or vibe. Manic is - intentionally - a very all over the place album, and I think we could be hearing a similar theme with H5.

It's interesting, because one of the things that happened in the lead-up to Manic was that Halsey changed her mind. The "Nightmare" video was the first place Manic was ever teased. For awhile, H was talking about making a really angry, punk-rock, feminist rage album. And then things shifted for her, and the vibe on Manic ended up being completely different - so much so that "Nightmare" didn't find a home until IICHLIWP. And I think something similar might have happened here.

If you asked me eighteen months ago, before Halsey and Alev broke up, I would've said that I expected a fully pop album, in the vein of "So Good" and this song snippet they posted on TikTok. It really seemed like that was where they were headed. But then 2023 happened, and I think things changed. Based on the little hints we have, I think this is going to be a more 70s folk rock kind of vibe.

What I don't think it will be: a pop album, anything hip-hop/rnb a la HFK, a hard rock or industrial album, a cohesive concept album like IICHLWIP, HFK, or Badlands.

I would personally love to see something a little more stripped down. More guitar, piano, violin, less synth and vocal mods. I've kind of already had my ideal producer for H - it'll be very hard for anyone to beat Trent Reznor at this point, for me. Would be wild if they worked with Lido again, lolololol. It'll be interesting to see what direction they take for the production style.

So yeah, I don't have any really hard and fast theories, other than I think this will be a really vulnerable album, it likely won't be pop (like it first seemed it might,) and it will likely have 70s influences and the references I mentioned up top.

On the bright side, if the insider rumors are correct (and a lot of times, they are, "insider" usually just means "this celebrity's manager") we won't have to wait too long! There's allegedly going to be a single and a video to go with it in the second half of February!

[damnfandomproblems]

735922006632153088 This seems like it would be a logistical nightmare! I think it would be too confusing for the mods to make a post, then return to each post and find the reblogged image version (if there even IS one! if there isn't, the mods would just be wasting their time), then reblog that too. Having more than one version of each post would mess up the reading order of the blog. Plus it feels like it kinda outsources the mod's stuff to readers and I don't want people starting to feel guilty and pressured to make image versions for one reason or another. I'm sure there are other problems I'm not seeing.

For me, making the images isn't the issue, I usually spend a few hours every couple weeks making a ton then adding them to the queue, then leave it alone for a while. It's a task I actually enjoy, It's a weirdly calming activity to work on while something plays in the background.

The part that's taking so long is the rate at which they're released. I've currently got the queue filled out with 350 posts, on our current 2-posts-per-day schedule the last of those won't be seen until the end of May. Even if we managed to convert every single submission into a queued post today, it would take about 4 years for the last one to release.

We've been discussing the possibility of setting the queue to post more than twice per day. The reason we hadn't in the past is because we used to have a problem with queued posts getting eaten or not getting posted. Tumblr is a functional website and all.

[traumasurvivorshelpingsurvivors]

Hey sorry for initially posting this as a message to mods! it was very late when i wrote up the first time lol

Hello, my name is V. I'm looking for support and validation, advice not wanted.

For the past 21 years I've lived in an abusive home. After some lengthy trauma processing I realized this abuse likely didn't start or stop anywhere, it just changed over time. In the past my dad was very physically abusive and both my parents were very verbally and emotionally abusive. Now that I am older it's ebbed in frequency but its still very much there, and financial abuse has gotten even worse now that I have my own assets. But that's precisely the problem.

All my life, my reality has been denied. Despite being told to keep the abuse behind closed doors, I refused and have told everyone about what happened to me to everyone I can think of. But every time I did, my situation was never considered "enough." my parents never faced any repercussions for their actions--law enforcement nor CPS ever questioned them--and still don't; even now if they make some sort of snide comment that hurts my feelings, they're quick to use emotional manipulation and red herrings to deflect accountability. I realized this month just how trapped I am here: if I attempt to leave, I'll lose access to my car, my health insurance, my bank account, pretty much everything that will help me survive on my own. That realization has spurred suicidal thoughts and a self harm relapse like no other. I'm currently unemployed after having to quit my job due to having my hours cut with no opportunity for overtime and only have about 900 dollars to my name as of now, so moving out isn't an option.

All this has given me a deep sense of shame and self doubt when speaking of my abuse. Despite having CPTSD from the abuse and still get constant nightmares and flashbacks, if nobody believes me when I say I'm being abused, or if they do believe me but don't share the same sense of urgency I do about it, then maybe it really isn't so bad and I'm just incapable of tolerating normal things, and if that's true, then maybe I'm not fit to exist in a world that is filled with these normal, intolerable things. My head fills up with thoughts like, "Stop talking about it, nobody is taking you seriously. No matter what you say, even if you can confirm its abusive, nobody will believe you, nobody will save you, because its your fault for not being able to handle this normal behavior."

In a last ditch effort, I have applied to stay at a respite house out of state for a week. My parents are out of town at the moment and I thought it would be refreshing, but then my brother decided to use this time to get incredibly drunk and act like a drunken asshole to me for 3 days then leave me alone for 2 days without telling me where he was, so that's a dream crushed. There's no respite houses in my state so I have to cross the border and drive for an hour and a half but its no big deal. I don't know how I'm going to tell my parents that I'm leaving for a week and have to turn off the tracking apps they force me to use (on the house's website it states that the address is not public for safety reasons and idk if Life360 can pull the address of the place and give it to my parents) but I don't think I care anymore. All I want is someone to affirm to me that what I'm experiencing is real, it's abuse, and I don't deserve it. Maybe there's people there who can do that for me. If my parents want to punish me for this, then I can't stop them. This is all I have left.

Putting these here so I can find this post on the TL

🐙🐙🐙

Hi V,

I'm so sorry to hear about what you've been going through. It's hard enough to experience this magnitude and multitude of abuse, but to be essentially gaslit on top of it makes things unimaginably worse. It seems that being financially dependent on them unfortunately works in their favor in order to keep you trapped in this dynamic.

Being minimized and dismissed, even by organizations like CPS, can be incredibly discouraging and it makes sense why at times you feel like what you're going through isn't severe or important enough. The people who try to convince you of this cannot dictate reality - you know what's going on and that's good enough. But that's hard to feel when you're trapped and surrounded by people who don't believe you no matter how much you're struggling. That's amplified by the internalized gaslighting of telling yourself that your experiences don't matter. It's a horrible situation to be in.

I work in a domestic violence shelter so if you need help finding somewhere safe to stay, I am happy to help. Please let us know if you need anything.

-Bun

[quotevarchive]

quotev is honestly one of the most insane websites ive ever signed up for. like the near constant stream of callouts is fucking crazy man

its even more insane taking into consideration im a mod of a relatively large group (the gays) and that group has SO MUCH insane lore that i wont even get into

its twitter and tumblr’s fucked up demon baby

Oh man… I know I don’t talk about groups much because im honestly not in many (I was in one of the big ones for a while but the notifications drove me nuts) but while they were not used as much when group search was removed, now that group search is back and the new features of groups function more like discord than anything, they are pretty popular again. Managing those big ones must be a nightmare. I can’t imagine. Any particular stories?

[the-lightest-shadow]

Walks in here

Games to play (horror/horror-like edition)

Steam:

- Smile For Me

- Amanda the Adventurer

- Bendy and the Ink Machine

- Bendy and the Dark Revival

- Doki Doki Literature Club

- Doki Doki Literature Club Plus

- Lobotomy Corporation

- Library of Ruina

- Limbus Company

- All the Fnaf games

- Fran Bow

- Ib

- Little Nightmares

- LIMBO

- Misao: Definitive Edition

- Phasmophobia

- Finish Spooky’s Jumpscare Mansion

- Tattletail

- Viscera Cleanup Detail

- We Happy Few

- The Witch’s House MV

- Yume Nikki

- Sally Face

- The Crooked Man

- Iron Lung

- Mad Father

- Monster Prom 1-3

- Sucker for Love

- Faith: The Unholy Trinity

- Cooking Companions

- Danganronpa 1-3 and Ultra Despair Girls

- Little Misfortune

- MADNESS: Project Nexus

- My Friendly Neighborhood

- Layers of Fear

- Resident Evil (especially 7-8)

- Blackout Hospital

Roblox:

- THE BACKROOMS [REDACTED]

- Mystery Flesh Pit National Park

- A Stereotypical Obby (a short game trust me)

- FEVER ASYLUM

- Shrek in the Backrooms

- Midnight Horrors

- Da Backrooms

- Evade

- get a snack at 4 am: SNACKCORE

- Backrooms Unlimited Alpha

- Cult Of The Cryptids

- Identity Fraud

- DOORS

ITCH.IO/Gamejolt/Other website downloads

- Crowscare

- It’s Not Me It’s My Basement

- Dreaming Mary

- Dsaf 1-3

- Five Nights at Candy’s

- Popgoes

- Really any fnaf fan game

- Any minecraft horror mods (idk many good ones anymore)

- Maybe go through the Itch.IO Horror tag? I recommend GO TO BED, Slide in the woods, Start Survey?, and Assessment Examination

Wow you really did just go nuts aggbzndhf

Noted! Making a recs tag for any stream/game recs I get!

(note for anyone who sees this: not all things in the recs tag will be streamed)

[lotsadeer]

do you have a top 5 webcomics? :o

I do!

Not in any particular order:

-Rubyquest

-Questionable Content

-Rice-boy

-Homestuck

-The Property of Hate

Theres definitely more I could throw in there. Kill 6 Billion Demons, Lackadaisy, Vattu, Dan and Mab's Furry Adventure, etc. But the 5 I listed I think are good examples of GOOD webcomics.

Rubyquest is a premiere example of an audience participation comic, and by extension Nanquest as well. They give the audience the opportunity to choose what they see and what the main character interacts with, and the consequences of those choices cannot be undone. Also the horror? Horror good.

QC is OLD. Hark! a Vagrant voice "Old as balls" (joke). It's a prime example of how a webcomic can start from two guys on a couch and become a well rounded story with a world that feels LIVED IN. It came from the era of webcomics that were spawned by Penny Arcade and CTRL+ALT+DEL, and came out of it like a fucking phoenix from the ashes of its failed brethren. Characters develop and become people, and the author shows a fundamental understanding of how a good character arc should go while still keeping the overall tone of the comic comedic.

Rice-boy is one of those comics that's kind of like a cryptid. It doesn't play with it's space or story the way other comics do, it doesn't have a gimmick. You discover it and leave its world changed as a person. Every Evan Dahm comic is like this, he is a master at what he does. But Rice-boy I, personally, think is the best example of this.

Okay I need you to stay with me on this one, okay? Is Homestuck a good story? Debatable. Is Homestuck worth reading? Also debatable. Did Homestuck change the webcomic game permanently? Absolutely. Hussie and their team did so much to play inside and outside of the webcomic sandbox that these days if a webcomic DOESN'T break its own website to make a plot point I'm concerned. It is a multimedia nightmare, and I'm not going to give Hussie all the credit for the brilliance of how it twists and bends and warps the space, but man. They sure did facilitate some interesting and honestly riveting shit.

The Property of Hate you already know. It was on your own list! I've been reading it since it started basically. ModMad has taken everything I said above that makes these other comics masterworks in the space and made them her own. The world is vast and lived in and horrifying and beautiful and her work as a cartoonist and interest in physical comics and filmography only adds to it. I am consistently amazed at what she pulls off. It may not be a multimedia nightmare like Homestuck is, but Mod gets the same *feeling* of multimedia that Homestuck has. It's like a fucked up magic trick.

[full-of-malice]

source as another user has said. I was there. I would appreciate it if you didn’t demean dozens of children’s trauma to a shit post. Thanks

here is a copy pasted explanation from this reblog of a post from a year ago because I have to keep doing this bullshit. It’s as many websites and resources and evidence that I can currently compile with my energy level and the fact as earlier stated. The website would get wiped every year it was a big event to the user base. After that you had no access to prior information. Many grooming victims were as they most often are, entirely unaware of what was really happening. 14 year olds don’t really think to document every time something scary or disturbing happens on that website because quite frankly there was always a new issue every month.

for starters there are two branches of nanowrimo, the ywp [young writers program, with forums for ages 13-18] and the main forums [with forums for ages 13+ but majorly had an adult audience with smaller side age locked teen spaces if they wanted spaces just for them].

there was rampant grooming, bigotry, everything under the sun on both platforms, i was part of the ywp, as was nightmare, and many of my friends. we were majorly victims of abuse, and the moderators would neglect the forums for days on end, sometimes we wouldn't hear back for weeks. known predators were allowed to roam freely. many of us struggled with our mental health, especially from the added weight of having to take care of younger users and moderate the site. some users would harass us for weeks on end and we were told to kill ourselves at least a few times.

i watched mods do nothing as a 13 year old middle schooler was being groomed into a relationship with a 17 year old high schooler. we would report people who were putting users in danger, and the mods wouldn't get back to us until three or more days, which sent a lot of people into a spiral in fear for themselves and others. many of us didn't have anywhere else to go. known groomers and abusers were allowed to roam the site however they liked and if you attempted to run them off the mods would remove you because the way you handled it was too harsh or not kindly worded. they were more concerned about how nice things looked rather then child safety. mods abused their powers over us again and again and any time we tried to say that it wasn't okay they claimed we were being cruel and abusing them. as if they weren't the adults with powers over the majority of the site.

on the main site grooming was rampant as well. a mod Allegedly faked their death, pretended to be multiple people, sent kids towards fetish websites. i have heard there were attempted fbi reports in the works, but that was last november and i have no idea what happened since then. i cannot speak much on this specifically as i was rarely ever apart of the main site, but i've talked to many people who were.

we've been attempting to raise awareness on the topic for over a year now but nobody listened and it all dwindled out. the ai discussion ended up creating a very big and popular anti nanowrimo stance but honestly forgets the most horrific and important parts of nanowrimo, not the ai. ai is not the issue lmao

i'm gonna link everything i can below

i've done my best to sort through everything important and file it under my blog as #anti nanowrimo

here are tiktoks part 1 and 2 on the topic

the original twitter awareness thread (which includes both my friend's and my own testimonies on it. and the website my friends made to try and host their stories) and it also features the discussion of the alleged fbi case

reddit posts on the topic with direct quotes, testimonies, and experiences

tumblr post 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

this post specifically has a lot of testimonies and first hand accounts from many teens on the site i would recommend reading through the reblogs and notes if you wanted firsthand accounts

two youtube videos on the topic

if anyone has anything else they would like to add, any errors noted, or any questions please let me know, and other ywp or nano users are free to add on as they please! this is just my best brief overview on the topic that i can give off the top of my head

but yeah ai is the least of nanowrimo's problems lol

Can't believe NaNoWriMo just did this, but literally.

[professionalchaoticdumbass]

oooooh i may try the rcs one! my other big qol mod is kerbal alarm clock, just to plan transfer windows and keep track of multi-ship flotillas (although i usually prefer to just slap everything onto a single mothership for interplanetary stuff)

and yeah i totally get that, i mainly use the base mod’s parts for rovers and the like anyway (although god knows those have their share of issues too). i’ve made plenty of SSTOs as well although i’m not great at the larger cargo ones, i mostly just use rockets for that but it’s still SO satisfying to get a spaceplane working. a while ago i made a VTOL spaceplane for duna which was one of my coolest ships to date and also an absolute nightmare to fly and land (plus it doesn’t have enough solar panels to refine ore at any quicker than a glacial pace), but i still love her no matter what 💖

oooh i have not tried VTOL much, the only one i did was a u-wing replica for a vall surface shuttle. duna planes are really hard as well because of how thin the atmosphere is

i mostly use the stock alarm clock cuz i don't play career/science mode that much so i'm usually flying a solo mission, and it's fine for that. i've heard things about dedicated transfer window planner mods but the websites i use work just fine or even better than that

i actually just landed a spaceplane at laythe earlier today at a really nice flat spot with a good view of jool and a neat little lagoon that i might put a floating base on in the future. i really love laythe missions with SSTOs, especially with refueling infrastructure or built-in ISRU, they are genuinely so fun