Thanks for addressing the NaNo issue. I'm also struggling to know the "correct" response. It's been a huge part of my writing history and journey.

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

It really is! NaNo is what has helped me finish more books than I would have on my own. And I do love the mission of the organization and their work to provide materials for schools. I'm hoping things can be resolved and NaNo can revive themselves in 2024.

It’s about time someone I follow addressed the nano issue. Thank you. I think it’s probably wise to wait until all the facts come out before giving up on nano as an organization but if it’s true, it’s a truly sad and disgusting situation.

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

I'm surprised, too, that I haven't seen more people talking about it here, especially after the email went out on Friday. From what I've seen so far, there were a lot of failures on multiple levels and things were allowed to continue much longer than there is an excuse for. It's definitely a gross situation. I'm hopeful things can be truly fixed in the coming year.

You're doing amazing! Good to hear more about the NaNo issue, seen a lot of info about it but didn't know the board had taken over so that's a good thing.

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

Thanks! And yes, I'm glad the Board shut things down and seem to moving in a good direction.

Honestly, I'm very curious as to where the FBI investigation will lead and if the NaNo org will have to bear any of the responsibility of negligence since the official forums themselves were used to commit the crimes, etc. I don't know the law enough to even guess where that would end up, whether the org will be given a chance to repair or be forced to shut down one way or another. It's so mind-blowing and devastating on all angles.

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

I have no idea how that would all work out legally-speaking either. And if the FBI is truly involved, you know it's going to take forever to actually get an answer or a conclusion to the investigation. Any government entity takes an age to do the simplest of tasks!

I was horrified when I first heard people talk about things, but then I looked into it myself and I feel like they have been transparent with everything they can be. I think we have to understand that anywhere there are large forums, you are going to run into problems. I think we need to place blame on the ones who acted badly, not the organization. I am not ready to dump NaNo as an organization. I also think too many people are way too quick to jump to conclusions about anything and everything now days and never place the blame where it belongs. I, like you, will be watching the situation and see what happens.

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

It's definitely a multifaceted issue and not one that can be easily or quickly explained. Some of the ways I've seen things summarized (by others outside of the Board) is just...inaccurate. Very big steps need to be taken, but totally agree about waiting and watching for now.

@moonykmi

7 ай бұрын

Honestly, I’m so fed up with the cancel culture. Yes what happens was so terrible, and unfortunately it does reflect on the whole thing because it took them so long to address the issue. Due to this whole scandal, I’m not doing Nanowrimo this year anymore, but I’ll continue with my writing goal. I will come back next year if their response is that of proactive changes, but I don’t want to cancel the whole thing for the wrong doings of one. Doesn’t seem right.

Finally I see someone talking about this! this is my first ever nano and I was so so excited to use the forums and have a writing community, and then it got completely shut down. After reading the posts from the board and the responses, I honestly feel like this could've been dealt with a lot easier. yes, they have been really good at addressing things and responding transparently, but at the same time, nothing gets FBI reports and moderators involved without happening for a decent amount of time. I would've liked things to be solved before they became a large enough issue that the board of directors had to step in, and the forums shut down completely. the mods that did bad things should've been suspended and investigated as soon as the first report came in, not even because it was about the safety of minors but because mods have to be SQUEAKY clean all the time or they can't serve the community right. and come on, it's 2023. we've all known about internet safety for a long time now. I feel like rather than have a big, public, extremely disorienting solution right now, they could've handled this when it was still in its beginnings. And yes, i'm not gonna lie, I feel personally really disappointed that the forums that had nothing to do with the situation were shut down. they were a big support system for a lot of people, myself included, and ive seen a lot of newbies completely turned off from wanting to do nano ever again because of it.

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

Ah, I'm so sorry your first NaNo was tainted like this 😞 Even if this event isn't for you in the future, don't stop writing! Things absolutely should have been dealt with earlier and I can't understand why the higher ups who knew didn't act immediately. I'm really hoping they can make sweeping changes to a number of things in the coming months and make the forums a safer place for everyone.

Not going to lie, I didn't really pay attention to the email when it came through. I just saw they were shutting down the forums, thought how I don't use them in the first place, and didn't finish reading the email. Now that I know what's going on, I'm pretty shocked. I also think it makes sense to wait and see what they do next before I make any decisions on whether or not to continue supporting them. I've loved how NaNo has pushed me to write over the years, but it's not like I can't continue writing if I no longer participate. On a happier note, I too hit 40k this past weekend and am hoping to hit the 50k mark by tomorrow!

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

Yeah, I think a lot of us are in the "wait and see" mindset. If it's not resolved very thoroughly, I'll have to step back from them, which would be so disappointing. Like you, NaNo has been instrumental in my progress as a writer and I'd be so sad to say 'so long.' Congrats on the 40k!! You're so close!

I don't know about the NaNo situation, but I can definitely comment on the MOVIES!! I, too, have heard endlessly about the Tarkovsky film as well as the Japanese movie, but haven't pursued finding or watching them -- yet. "North & South" is new to me, although I saw it listed on a movies-to-recommend video and wondered, "What's that?" If it's only four 1-hour episodes, I might even be able to get Dad to watch it! I own "Howl's Moving Castle" and bought it in the mid-2000's, soon after seeing "Spirited Away" for the first time and going bananas for Miyazaki! I should see it again. I recently saw "The Body Snatcher" (1945) with Boris Karloff, one of his first efforts that wasn't Frankenstein-oriented. I was especially interested in it because it was directed by ROBERT WISE -- so I knew he had to be really young then, and 15+ years before "The Haunting" and "Sound of Music," so I wanted to see how it went. VERY interesting picture, far more thought-provoking than expected, and Karloff's characterization one that made you wish he'd done more classic theater or movies. Gorgeous black & white photography, of course! Next up, another one I've never seen that's currently available on TCM On Demand: "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1934), Hitchcock when he was still in England before coming to the US, and starring PETER LORRE, yowza! Dad will definitely watch Peter Lorre. And finally, I'll try to see "Prey" (2022), currently available on Hulu, another film in the Predator franchise, BUT from the point-of-view of American colonial tribal people. Maybe this would be a good one to see when your brother is here! Of course, there have been interesting reports from various locations about ACTUAL "predator-type" creatures that people have seen or encountered, so I'll be interested in how this one is depicted. Yes, that's right, ACTUAL creatures that move or behave like the Predator may be real. I'm still looking into this and enjoy any info I hear or find.

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

haha I thought you would enjoy hearing my movie plans! I'll let you know what I think of the Tarkovsky and ~Hong Kong~ film as someone mentioned in another comment. It sounds like it's going to have a Brief Encounter-esque sort of ending 🙃 I thought the Predator movies were scary with jump scares and stuff! Wouldn't have thought you'd want to watch one of those.

@kelsowins

7 ай бұрын

I've only really seen the very first Predator movie (w/Arnold Schwarzenegger), but this one intrigues me because of the tribal people connection. Yes, do let me know what you think of the Russian/Japanese pictures. I have one Japanese picture saved to watch, from the late 1950's, but I don't remember the title. It's about a woman who loves a man but he is married so her only option is being his mistress. Doesn't sound like a prescription for a happy life, but I'm interested in seeing how this is treated from a Japanese angle. @@MeredithPhillipsWrites

I heard it from Kelley Tai last week. I was wondering how long it gonna for others to discover it too. I am not so attached to NaNoWriMo, just know it since last year, so no hard feelings.

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

Yeah, I almost wished I had said something in the previous vlog, but I really hadn't read enough yet to know what to say. But I'm glad to hear others are discussing it, too!

Thank you for sharing about the NaNo controversy, I share a lot of the same thoughts. I'm assuming that they are a small (nonprofit too) company that just grew way too fast and didn't invest time in the infrastructure to safely host such large communities online. Hopefully this brings about necessary policies and swift consequences as you said, so everyone can move forward.

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

YES, definitely agree about the fast growth and inability to keep up. The forums are so massive, I think moderating could work better if they reduce some of the categories that are available to post in, at least until they have a reliable and trustworthy group of mods present. I am hopeful, but am waiting to see exactly what changes are brought about in the months to come.

North and south is my favorite period drama, you’ll love it. For totally random, try the mini series The 10th Kingdom. It’s creative and weird and wonderful.

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

Ahh I’m so excited to watch N&S 😍 Thanks for the rec! I feel like I’ve heard of it, but I’ll definitely look it up.

Thank you for bringing up the trouble with NaNo. I got the email from the board, but I haven't really dug into it. I'll be looking at the links you shared!

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

It's _a lot_ to go through for sure. And hard to keep up with. There seem to be hundreds of new comments every time I look at the threads and I just don't have time to read through it all! But I think if you read the main posts and some of the follow up replies, you'll get a good sense of what's happened and what to look for in the coming months.

@ThaBloodWitch

7 ай бұрын

@@MeredithPhillipsWrites Have the board referenced a data breach anywhere? A TikTok someone linked mentioned it, but I figure that would be something they would actually mention if it were a true concern...

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

@@ThaBloodWitch I don't remember seeing anything about that. From what I heard, it's being speculated that one of the mods had access to personal info of the users, so it's possible that person might have things like user names and passwords in their possession. But I've not seen anything confirming that. A lot of people were suggesting changing your password, though, just in case.

@ThaBloodWitch

7 ай бұрын

@@MeredithPhillipsWrites I would be tempted to delete my account, just because I don't really have any attachment to it, but I want to be able to see whatever updates the board makes in the forums.

You can update with 0 words and it counts as an update for the badge. If you want

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

Oh, how funny! I'll see...that kind of feels like cheating though, haha!

I hope you love North and South! It is one of my favorite movies. If you enjoy it, you may also like Wives and Daughters. It is another movie (mini series) based on a book by Elizabeth Gaskell.

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

I'm so excited to watch! And thanks for the rec--I'll definitely check it out.

I watched In The Mood For Love for class and it was so good!!!! I belive it's Chinese set in Hong Kong, but it's so good and the costume design is so good. Of course I can vouch for Howl's Moving Castle.

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

Oh, you're right! Shows how much I know about it, haha! I've just seen little snippets of scenes and still frames and if anything can hook me, it's some stellar cinematography.

I'm still updating but I'm not going to donate until it gets fixed. I do support work for a medical organization, so my job doesn't shut down for that last week, but it's a week I'd normally be remote anyway..

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

My job works with the federal government so most folks are using up their PTO or taking off for the holidays. It’s always so boring if I do end up working that week 😂

My first inkling that something was wrong was our local ML came into our discord and told us out local forum was closed. And then she told us bare bones what happened. To say i was shocked is an understatement. But i agree with you. I hope that they can fix things.

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

I’m hopeful about the whole situation, too. It’s be such a shame if this brought the whole thing down.

The stuff that's been going on over at NaNo is gross, and I hope they can work their way through it as an organization. I'm not actually participating, but I can imagine it had the possibility to derail a fair few writers!

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

It's definitely been a distraction from writing, that's for sure. I really love the mission of the organization, so I'm hoping they can get the right people in place to turn things around.

I loved that intro!!

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

Haha thanks, ZK 🥰

It's so very easy to say "oh, we didn't know" and "of course we would have reacted earlier". They should have known. They could have known months ago. And I don't really trust that they didn't know. At least the complete forum people in the US where it happened. The regions are most if not all innocent but the NaNoWriMo people should have been more involved in the forum. Plus there is the sponsor stuff. That WAS KNOWN. So... I am so heartbroken at the moment, I don't know what to say.

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

It seems like a lot of the staff did know, so I can't see any excuse for them to have not taken action months ago. The Board of Directors is a little different though than the regular staff and (at least for the moment) I'm choosing to believe that that group only found out earlier this month. I haven't heard anything about sponsor-related issues though? But yes, I'm really sad about the whole thing, too. Participating has been part of my writing life for so many years now, it'll feel weird if November isn't a big writing month in the future.

The struggle is real. I'm still updating for now, but I think we're all going to need some real actions taken in the coming months. Truly hoping they get it together. P.s. foster bunny's hair just made my entire day.😂

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

Yeah, I'll be watching closely to see what exactly they implement. It's going to be a challenge for sure. haha yes, those lionhead bunnies have the wildest hair!!

It is pretty bad whats going on, EA game changers went through something similar a while ago. I waited to see what they did with that situation so I will do the same here. Watch and see how they handle things with the current issues they have going on.

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

It's awful, for sure. I like the 'wait and see' approach, too, and am hoping to see some big changes in the coming months.

It's been absolutely crazy making to try and keep up with thousands of comments on NaNo stuff! I'm still holding out hope that the forum culture situation does get fixed, the Board seems to care about fixing it so. Tentatively optimistic. If you're looking for something big and fun, I saw Renfield recently with a friend of mine and it was so funny. It's a big over the top gorey but in a like... comical way? if that makes sense. Anyway highly recommend.

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

I've kind of given up on reading each and every post. It's too much at this point! And from what I've seen in recent days, some of the conversation has (predictably) devolved into pointing fingers and arguing and getting off-topic. Thanks for the rec! I do love Nick Cage!

@kaylughmanda

7 ай бұрын

@@MeredithPhillipsWrites Nick Cage is the only person who could have played that role it was a full on chef's kiss. I would avoid reading it all but I'm extremely nosy, what if I miss good tea?

I’ve never even heard of those movies lol

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

haha well some of them are a little more obscure than others!

Best movie: beasts of the Southern wild. Since you seem adventurous

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

I'll check it out, thanks!

I'm going to keep using the site. I think the virtue signaling of "cancel your account or you support the bad actions of this one person!" is garbage. My take: use the site, but don't buy merch or any programs through them until things are resolved. Bummer about the glasses!

@MeredithPhillipsWrites

7 ай бұрын

I think that's a good middle ground to take for the moment. If the internet has taught us anything, it's the fact that when scandal breaks, you gotta give it a second because there's always more that is revealed later on! It does look like the problem began with one person, but there are some serious failures at high levels that have prevented things from being resolved months back. I hope to see some staff restructuring for sure.