Terms and Conditions
Ahoy! Welcome to the seventh year of National Novel Writing Month. In a few minutes, you'll be a profile-toting Wrimo and officially registered for the event this November. But before the fun begins, we need to go over a few things.
Our forums (message boards) are a vibrant marketplace of writing ideas, as well as a festive place to get and give encouragement.
As the one place where Wrimos from all over the world can gather to chat, cajole and procrastinate, the forums are designed to keep spirits (and word counts) soaring. Even if it feels a little scary at first, we ask you to dive right in. You'll be going through some pretty bizarre mood swings in November, and no one can empathize with the suffering and elation like your fellow writers. As a super bonus, if you post often enough, you can effectively avoid doing any real work at your job for months!
That said, there are certain kinds of posts we do not allow on the forums. Anyone posting abusive, pornographic, hateful, or threatening material (or any other stuff that may violate any applicable laws), will have their NaNoWriMo account deleted and will be banned from the site.
We will also file a formal complaint with the offending party's internet service provider, and, if we deem it necessary, with their local police department. The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions.
We will remove posts we deem harassing or offensive, but we will not be held liable for anything you stumble across that may anger or offend you. By signing up for NaNoWriMo, you are acknowledging that all posts made to our forums express the views and opinions of the author, and not the administrators, moderators or webmaster (except for posts by these people).
You also agree that the webmaster, administrator and moderators of this forum have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should they see fit. As a user, you agree to any information you have entered above being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party, the webmaster, administrator and moderators cannot be held responsible for any security breach that may lead to the data being compromised.
NaNoWriMo's forum system uses cookies to store information on your local computer. These cookies serve only to make using the site more convenient for you. Your email address is used by this site to confirm your registration details and password, and to send out NaNoWriMo pep talks and newsletters. We do not share or sell participants' information. We recommend all Wrimos be very skeptical of anyone they meet in the forums who claims to be an agent, book editor or publisher. Especially if that person asks for an upfront payment in exchange for services. If you are approached by someone wielding a too-good-to-be-true publishing deal, please let us know, and we'll investigate.
This year, we're also encouraging participants to post photos of themselves in their user profile areas. Posting a photo, however, is not required. We've added this feature to help make the writerly city of NaNoWriMo feel a little more small-townish and homey. To keep that feeling alive, we ask that you only post photos of yourself (rather than your cat or favorite anime character), and that you be fully clothed in any of the pictures you do post. Users who violate the first rule will be cursed with an infestation of malevolent canaries. Users who violate the second rule will be banned from the site.
If you are 12-and-under, or participating in NaNoWriMo as part of a K-12 classroom, you will be using the Young Writers Program forums. No foul language is allowed on the Young Writers Program forums, and anyone using inappropriate language will have their posts deleted from the forums, and be banned from our site.
On the NaNoWriMo main forums, on the other hand, strong language is acceptable in the *body* of posts on the NaNoWriMo forums, so long as it's not used in a hateful or attacking way. We do ask, however, that all participants refrain from using curse words in their Usernames and in the Subjects of their posts. Filtering software in schools and libraries often renders entire threads invisible when it detects a single instance of foul language, so one expletive-filled Username can make a forum unreadable to participants using public computers.
This year we've also created a special forum for self-promotion, self-marketing, and a list of special NaNoWriMo-only offers being made by companies sympathetic to the plight of today's high-speed novelists. If you are interested in offering products or services to NaNoWriMo participants, you may not post about your offerings directly in the marketing forum, nor anywhere else on the site. Please contact staff instead, and allow them to post the information on your behalf. This forum, like all forums on the site, are for use solely by NaNoWriMo participants.