No Mo NaNoWriMo

[the_gneech]

So NaNoWriMo is going the way of the dodo. Posts about it on Mastodon or Bluesky all tie that to their embrace of AI, but what I’ve seen suggests that they’ve been struggling for some time. Given how excited I was to participate in it once upon a time, I would expect to have stronger feelings about it, but honestly I just don’t. I have reached the stage where I assume unless proven otherwise that enshittification of anything good is a matter of when, not if; as such, I just don’t emotionally invest in such things the way I once did.

But I’d say that NaNoWriMo is an exemplar of a larger trend of the web and post-web era: so many of the web’s best things are just not viable economic concerns, and should never have been treated as such. Just like nobody should reasonably expect to somehow make a living building model trains or hiking mountain trails, “encouraging people to write” is a valuable activity on its own, but trying to make it financially remunerative is just not a thing that will go anywhere. In the same vein as “the Post Office is a public service, not a business,” our culture has an unhealthy fixation on trying to make everything profitable somehow, even things that just aren’t.

There’s a reason so many artists and other creative types can only make a living via some kind of patronage arrangement. Art, writing, other creative pursuits are immensely valuable to society without being profitable, in the same way that exercise or brushing your teeth are valuable to an individual person without being profitable. There are exceptions of course, creative people who can make a living or even thrive through their work—but there are also professional athletes who make a living or even thrive through doing exercise. But those exceptions are extreme outliers.

If NaNoWriMo had stayed in its lane, so to speak, and always been considered a valuable community activity and event instead of a money-making enterprise, it would still be alive and well and beloved by many. (The whole AI thing was a huge blow to their reputation, of course, making the beloved part less of a slam dunk… but who knows how much of the AI thing was a desperation bid to make a profit? I’m not versed enough in the matter to have a meaningful opinion on it.)

So, alas, poor NaNoWriMo. I am proud that I managed to succeed at the challenge once or twice, and I’m grateful for the impetus it gave me. But the truth is it had long stopped being relevant.

-The Gneech

Comments

[rowyn]

NaNoWriMo lit their brand on fire years before they "embraced AI." Their demise says everything about the way they ran their organization, and specifically the way they failed their volunteers and their users (and especially the minors in their Young Writers program!) If you want all the gory details of how NaNoWriMo destroyed its reputation, this post from Jan 2024 (and its Part 2, linked at the bottom) has a good overview: https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/1ae3038/writing_discords_forums_and_a_decades_worth_of/

Their abyssmal behavior drove away their sponsors. I discovered 4thewords.com in 2016 in part because they sponsored NaNoWriMo. By 2024, 4thewords had literally scrubbed NaNoWriMo from their site. 4TW is a writing gamefication site that has events in April, July, and November specifically because those are the months NaNoWriMo held events. And even 4TW wanted nothing to do with NaNoWriMo by mid-2024. This went beyond "we won't sponsor them" to "we won't even mention their name."

Yes, technically, NaNoWriMo is closing because they can't get funds. But the reason they can't get funds is that they alienated virtually every organization and individual that cared about their mission. It's like a baby food company putting arsenic in their product and then wailing that they have to close because no one will buy it. THERE IS A REASON FOR THAT.

They were so toxic that by 2024 (and again, before the AI nonsense), I didn't know anyone who was writing in November and using the NaNoWriMo hashtag. Not just the site! No one even wanted to associate with the hashtag anymore. I don't think the AI thing was even a nail in the coffin. The community had already declared them dead and buried; they just hadn't admitted it yet.

[the_gneech]

That was more than I knew! So yeah, I'd say the AI thing is probably irrelevant at best.