Dear NaNoWriMo...

 Boy howdy, did you shit the bed.

I know you lost a lot of people with the grooming scandal on the forums. I stood by you, NaNoWriMo, even then, because your board stepped in and promised real action.

Which...hasn't really been done? Moderator X has been sacked, but the forums are still in limbo and we're closing in on a year since they were shut down. But that's not really what my problem is. You're under no legal obligation to even have forums and I can just write it off as This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things.

I only just now learned about the controversy over you plugging known vanity presses, so that's not really what my problem is, either. I'll just say...really?

I don't even have a problem with your refusal to condemn the use of AI in novel-making. I work in AI; it pays my bills. If somebody wants a fast-food novel instead of writing one from scratch, I guess that's what works for them. I even understand why you're refusing to take a stand--because ProWritingAid is a big sponsor of your organization. I get it.

Here is where you lost me:

We believe that to categorically condemn AI would be to ignore classist and ableist issues surrounding the use of the technology, and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege.

Give me a fucking break. Waving away criticism with the language of social justice is quite possibly just as awful as being ableist or classist yourself. As longtime NaNoer sushimustwrite puts it, it "throws disabled writers under the bus for social justice points."

Let's get into how you assert AI is supposed to help. 

The financial ability to engage a human for feedback and review assumes a level of privilege that not all community members possess.

I've never paid a dime to have anybody review my work. I've shown my work to friends and I'm currently in a great writers group that tells me what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong. I don't need AI for that. Plus, you really shouldn't be bandying about notions regarding class privilege, when your organization operates via a website that requires a reasonably advanced computer and stable internet access to interact with. 

The notion that all writers “should“ be able to perform certain functions independently or is a position that we disagree with wholeheartedly. There is a wealth of reasons why individuals can't "see" the issues in their writing without help.

This is the point where I went from "annoyed" to "infuriated." Not being able to "see" the issues in your writing is not a disability; framing it as such is insulting to people who do have disabilities. (Yours Truly included.) Anybody who writes is going to have blind spots when it comes to their work, no matter how typical or diverse their neuro is. People have been solving for that problem for ages. Friends, family, writers groups, online communities--all of these can give better insight than even the most advanced AI.

The next part I'm quoting in full because it's just so bonkers.

All of these considerations exist within a larger system in which writers don't always have equal access to resources along the chain. For example, underrepresented minorities are less likely to be offered traditional publishing contracts, which places some, by default, into the indie author space, which inequitably creates upfront cost burdens that authors who do not suffer from systemic discrimination may have to incur.

Okay? Looks like you got so caught up trying to be all social justicey and stuff that you forgot to bring up exactly how AI in particular is supposed to help "underrepresented minorities."

This is absolutely disgusting. How dare you use the word "privilege" as a club to silence people's objections? How dare you use the underprivileged and the disabled to cover for your decision? Setting aside the morality of AI itself, the choices you made to justify it are damning.

Atlanta currently doesn't have any Municipal Liaisons because the ones we had took their Discord server and went home.  I'd already been thinking about skipping NaNoWriMo this November, and now that idea has solidified. Where you go from here will determine if I'll ever be back.