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National Novel Writing Month Grooming Controversy depicting an image of the NaNoWriMo logo with a red slash through it.

NaNoWriMo Grooming Controversy

Part of a series on National Novel Writing Month. [View Related Entries]

Updated Nov 15, 2023 at 03:08PM EST by Zach.

Added Nov 15, 2023 at 07:48AM EST by sakshi.

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Overview

NaNoWriMo Grooming Allegations, also known as National Novel Writing Month ADBL Fetish Site Controversy, refers to discussions about a National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) moderator purportedly redirecting underage participants to an offsite adult diaper fetish forum in November 2023. Moderators on the NaNoWriMo website were accused of ignoring the accusations leveled against the moderator until further pressure was applied via backlash online, as well as controversy surrounding the deletion posts and threads discussing the issue on National Novel (NaNo) forums. Conflicting accounts of the issue were discussed on different parts of the internet, with users on a Christian writers' forum condemning the moderator and some users on the /r/ABDL (Adult Baby Diaper Lovers) subreddit defending the moderator, claiming the controversy to be an unfounded witch hunt.

Background

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a U.S.-based non-profit started in July 1999 that promotes creative writing around the world. Every November, participants are encouraged to attempt to write a 50,000-word manuscript with the help of a website that hosts forums, author discussions and writing tips.

In early November 2023, discussions about a supposed lack of moderation affecting minors participating in the event began to gain traction, with accusations of grooming being levied against a specific moderator on the NaNoWriMo forums.

On November 7th, 2023, X[1] user @Arumi_kai posted a thread documenting how they and their friends attempted to file an official complaint against the offending moderator, only for the accusation to be dismissed. The thread also states that they went on to send the information they collected to the FBI (seen below).


What the heck is going on?? What happened? ● A group of concerned users identified evidence of alleged child exploitation on the NaNoWriMo forums by a (now ex)moderator. This moderator allegedly runs a fetish website that allegedly includes content involving minors. They were also the NaNo moderator overseeing a group of teenage minors here on the NaNo forums. ● We uncovered instances where minors were allegedly being lured over to the fetish site, and adults from the fetish site were allegedly invited into NaNo's teen threads to interact inappropriately with the teens. This is only one of several instances 6 where a NaNo moderator has allegedly abused their position to exploit vulnerable minors on the NaNo forums, as proven by both the PMR and personal accounts posted on the MFCF thread. OMG!! What did you do about it? In May of 2023, we sent a report outlining our concerns to Grant and Marya, including a spreadsheet, links and several screenshots. This was not meant to be irrefutable proof of minor exploitation, but proof that there was a serious concern, and a call for them to investigate the matter further, because a NaNo moderator involved in minor exploitation would be a very serious concern (or so we thought). What happened next? Marya confirmed receipt of our PM, and told us it was being investigated. Then we waited. And waited. A month passed, and this individual was still in a moderator position overseeing the minors on the NaNo site. Nothing was done. We then realized that the fetish site had been locked down and had begun scrubbing data, meaning someone may have warned the moderator about our PM. So, what did you do after that? This mod had a history of problematic interactions with the minors even outside the concerns we brought up in the PM. So, we built a case to at least have them de-modded, to at least get them away from NaNo's minors - since HQ didn't seem to be doing anything about it. After massive pressure from users, this was successful, and the individual was removed as a moderator. However, they were not banned from the site, and continued to retain their personal accounts with the same name they'd had while moderator. Even worse, they continued to post in threads with their moderator username and adapted a position of continued authority. What the heck?? WHY WEREN'T THEY BANNED?? In the MFCF thread, Marya told us that she didn't find the allegations we presented as worthy of de-modding the user, because if she'd thought she'd seen something concerning, she would have done something about it. Also, she told us that they "didn't see the concern" about allowing this ex-mod to retain their multiple NaNo forum accounts even after being de-modded. Did NaNo staff even investigate the concerns you presented in the PM? We don't know. We keep hearing that "something" happened, but it apparently didn't ever turn into any perceivable action. We know at least one meeting happened, and Letitia got an email that did NOT include the screenshots or content of the PM we sent about our concerns, but didn't get to access the screenshots or actual PM. We only figured this out and looped her in a few days ago. Did NaNo report this to the FBI? We don't know. Thankfully, we filed a FBI report about the site shortly after uncovering it. Not only was this the right thing to do, based on the disturbing content we saw - we had concerns about NaNo botching the investigation and tipping them off to scrub the site. As it turns out, our worries were well-founded.
Arumi Velociraptor | sudo -426 int @Arumi_kai. Nov 8 So, back in May I was part of a group of 100+ users who uncovered this. It was freaking *bad*. Like, trauma territory. First thing we did is file a FBI report. We then reported it to #NaNoWriMo. "hey you need to investigate this since this person is a mod & these are minors" Q 1 CI 17 Arumi Velociraptor | sudo -426 int @Arumi_kai They were like "cool we'll look into it!" We waited. And waited. 149 12K 口企 A month passed. This mod was *the only person in charge of modding NaNo's underage users*. ... Their mod powers weren't being removed, no updates from anyone, and we were being ghosted. 3:54 AM . Nov 8, 2023 10.9K Views Arumi Velociraptor | sudo -426 int @Arumi_kai. Nov 8 Naturally, we asked more questions in the public feedback thread, but got no actual answers. In fact, one of the other mods got defensive. Was there an investigation? We don't know. The ex-mod, still on the forums, started posting threats offsite. They knew who we were, now. Q1 17 6 Arumi Velociraptor | sudo -426 int @Arumi_kai. Nov 8 When they threatened the NaNo org, they finally got banned. Did I mention this person was the one primarily responsible for onboarding most of NaNo's current forum infrastructure, and publicly bragged about having access to sensitive user data? 2 1 101 179 109 Arumi Velociraptor | sudo -426 int @Arumi_kai. Nov 8 Others began coming forward with stories about being groomed as minors by NaNoWriMo forum moderators. Why? ₁8.7K One person made a post exposing another mod for grooming, and their thread was INSTANTLY deleted. 178 1 111 10 il₁8.5K Arumi Velociraptor | sudo -426 int @Arumi_kai. Nov 8 This all came to a head today: The user feedback thread - the primary place people were asking questions about this, was shut down with no prior notice. ılı 8.5K 112 □ Users were silenced, posts were deleted. NaNoWriMo apparently wants to shut this discussion down. ₁8.5K 口企 : 口企


Developments

On November 11th, 2023, X user @Arumi_kai continued to post updates in their thread,[2] adding a link to a series of testimonials issued by younger NaNoWriMo participants that cite a lack of adequate moderation on the website. However, none of the testimonials cited by @Arumi_kai addressed the issue of a moderator supposedly redirecting users to an adult diaper fetish site.


Arumi Velociraptor | sudo -426 int @Arumi_kai OH MY GOD IT GETS WORSE. Users from the #NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program (specifically FOR minors) are now sharing testimonies about moderator mistreatment. No one was helping, so the kids made a WEBSITE. speak-out.carrd.co/# I'm so angry. These kids deserved better. hello i'm a user from the ywp forums and i have another instance of issues with moderation that happened just this year that i wanted to bring to light, because the mods have failed in moderation countless times now just this year in late spring or early summer i believe we found two users attempting to date and doing some very suggestive roleplaying, which was against the rules. we then learned that one user involved was 13, and in middle school, and that the other user was 17. and in 11th grade. neither of the users were in good headspaces, and we were terrified because there were many blatant grooming tactics being used. including lines like "i don't normally date people your age but your different". no matter what the situation a 17 year old can never have good intentions when a dating a middle schooler. we proceeded to panic and attempt to discuss this with the younger user and explain the danger that he was in. he didn't listen and we decided to flag the posts where they stated their ages together in an attempt to get the mods attention to step in. the mods only removed the suggestive roleplaying and said that there was no rules against dating on the ywp. only against suggestive content. and completely disregarded any form of safety for the younger of the users. : in the end we Children and Teens on the site were forced to basically bully the two apart, until they broke up. eventually the two drifted apart, and i do hope that the younger user is doing well i do see him on occasionally, but that the older of the users was still very much active and was not banned. this has happened countless times on the ywp. this is just one example of when groomer and predators are allowed to run free and rampant on this site leaving a group children to set up communication and offsites to discuss how to deal with predators ourselves. because the mods are evidently not capable of doing so if anyone has any questions i was very involved with attempting to remove the older person from the situation and have been part of that group who has to moderate For the mods 5:25 AM Nov 12, 2023 9,988 Views

On November 9th, 2023, Redditor[3] /u/not_deviant_enough posted to /r/ABDL (Adult Baby Diaper Lovers) asking about why some links in the Adult Baby Diaper Lover Stories forum were being removed. Redditor u/abdlstoriesclub responded to the post, claiming to be a lawyer representing the interests of the moderator accused of grooming minors on the NaNoWriMo forums (seen below).


+~+ What's going on at ABDL Story Forum? (self.ABDL) submitted 5 days ago by not_deviant_enough I noticed recently that some of my bookmarks to stories on the ABDL Story Forum (current url - d.abdlstories.club) are no longer functional. The administrator there had been slowly restricting access to a lot of old stories for one stated reason or another, and I know they floated locking the forums entirely in the past. Seems like they've finally done that. Anyone know what the incident was the prompted this lockdown? I no longer have an account there, it got removed during some conversion, so I can't check it myself. To be honest, I didn't really want an account there anymore anyway. I was tired of arguing with the admin about how all their various legal and non-legal troubles seemed like a money grift. The drama on that forum, which all revolved around the admin, seemed way out of pace with the actual activity with its userbase, which some days was visibly zero new posts. It's decline is kind of a shame too, at least for me. It was one of the first places I regularly visited when I was discovering this part of myself. But despite my distaste for the current iteration of the site, I do love the gossip sometimes. The hot goss, the tea, the scuttlebutt, whichever the kids are saying these days. Or perhaps, more appropriate for our group here, what's the word around the daycare about the ABDL Story Forum? 7 comments source share save hide report crosspost hide all child comments [-] abdlstoriesclub 3 points 3 days ago I'm the attorney that represents their legal interests and the current situation is, to put it bluntly, very f----- up. A good friend of Hatsune Miku's used to be a moderator on the NaNoWriMo forums until this past June. People started making false claims about her being a child molester and recently they escalated it to claiming she was inviting teens to the forums, which would have been quite challenge since the friend in question doesn't even have an account there. Anyway, the NaNoWriMo staff know this is outright lies but refused to stop people from posting the lies and it came to light the staff knew that several users were actively stalking both Hatsune Miku and her friend online and did nothing about it. This came to a head a few days ago when they found evidence that some existing users of the story forums were helping to create false proof. That was when she put the site in total lockdown. Thursday night it took a turn south when someone who was convinced that Hatsune Miku and her friend were the same person doxxed her someone showed up at her home and attacked her. She's currently in the ICU and listed as being in critical condition. Legally, due to the investigation that's about all I can say publicly beyond opthis: yes, the FBI were contacted by those f------ idiots at NaNoWriMo and just like every other time they determined that there was no laws being broken. Those idiots are just a bunch of sore losers who all have one thing in common: Hatsune Miku's friend was the moderator who wouldn't let them talk her out of banning them when they did stupid s--- to earn those bans. permalink source save save-RES report reply hide child comments [-] neko_daddy Daddy 2 points 3 days ago That's absolutely horrible to read. People suck. permalink source save save-RES parent report reply [S] 1 point 2 days ago [-] not_deviant_enough Okay, thanks. I appreciate the writeup. Look, I don't really want to get any more involved in this, but I've also said this to your client directly in a public comment back when I had an account on the forums. If all this drama is as it's said and especially if your client is being attacked in real life, and I'm not disputing its validity because again I do not want to be involved, then I'd recommend maybe they need to get off the internet because it is not a good place, even generally speaking. Archive the forums, shut down access entirely, leave the keys with a caretaker, and just get away from actively being online until all of these legal situations get resolved. I said it in this very thread, the drama there is insane given the size of the community relative to the subculture. I don't think any of this is worth it. That's the last thing I'll ever say about this site. permalink source save save-RES parent report reply hide child comments [-] abdlstoriesclub 2 points 2 days ago Believe me, I would love to just shut the whole damn thing down. I've been trying to convince them of that for a year now. Unfortunately, I can't personally make that call, yet. The second I can, I am. permalink source save save-RES parent report reply

The Reddit post also contained a screenshot from the ABDL forum in which a moderator named HatsuneMiku accused NaNoWriMo participants of harassing their friend, conflating their ABDL work and their friend's work as a NaNoWriMo moderator, and falsely accusing their friend of grooming through association with ABDL communities (shown below).


Sorry for the huge downtime Announcements Hatsune Miku Stole Cinderella Nov 02, 2023 As you would have seen in the error message during the downtime, we had to do a critical security update. While this security update was in progress I also discovered that some pieces of s--- from the a certain writing community that is popular in April, July, and November had been stalking us and making false claims about us. Due to the staff's s----- behavior of suspending my account and a friend whose only mistake was warning them that I was planning to contact their hosting team about them knowingly allowing illegal behavior of their participants and literally said NOTHING to us about it. As such, any attempt to mention that piece of filth organization by name on here will be blocked from now on. Additionally, we have now completely locked down all sections so that only users who have been verified or are active donors can access them. I know this sucks, and I hate that we got to this point, but with people actively trying to out of members we have no choice. Also, starting today I will be purging ALL users who have zero posts who registered between May 1st, 2023 and now. Additionally, we will now be requiring all new members to go through a manual approval process. Thank those pieces of s--- whose non-profit is based in California. With luck, actions I am currently taking will very much deprive them of their forums and quite possibly their tax-exempt status. Oh, and a very special f--- you to Marya Brennan for lying about my friend sending threats. May you burn in f------ hell!

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External References

[1] X – Arumi_kai

[2] X – Arumi_kai

[3] Reddit – /r/abdl

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