Intro: The End of NaNoWriMo
So, I had heard that NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) competition had come to an end. But, I hadn’t known the full extent of the situation until I found a write-up about it via the NaNoWriMo2 website. And, I had only found out about this when I was browsing the Writing section of Feddit.Online (a Fediverse alternative to Reddit), and someone asked if anyone was going to participate in the Novel Writing competition as outlined on the NaNoWriMo2 website.
So, after looking at that site, I made a very quick decision: to start a community on Feddit for the NaNoWriMo2 competition. Nothing specifically tied to whoever had started that website, but just putting together a space where Fediverse citizens could talk about the competition throughout the month of November.
The Birth of FediWriMo
I put the community together on Friday night, October 31st, and waited to see if anyone joined the community. And, sure enough, a few people did join. We’re currently standing at 17 subscribers, with 9-10 active on a daily basis.
I’d call that a success for a community started at the very last minute, and with nothing more than word-of-mouth spreading its existence through the Fediverse.
But, I started having some immediate reservations. Not about the community, but about the name and the association(s) with NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo2. There were two, in particular:
- The name was too close to the old, controversial organization, while we had literally no association with the previous organization.
- I don’t know the people involved with NaNoWriMo2 website.
So, I thought maybe we should rename the community, and asked for suggestions. There were a couple of thoughts, but not too much input… So I made the decision to rename the community FediWriMo. The idea being that we kept the core idea of being a “Writing Month” community, but this one is explicitly based in the Fediverse.
I also think this is a good idea, as we are not linking in the concept that this is a “National” competition. We’re not restricting this to one country, but to anyone that is part of the Fediverse.
What’s Next?
Honestly, I just want to get through this month first. We’re a small enough group that I am the sole Administrator and Moderator for the community.
There are some things that I think I can manage that would be beneficial to the group.
I would like to grow the community as much as possible within the Fediverse. That’s something that I think we can do.
I’d like to bring on some moderators: if we grow the group to a reasonable size, then adding more moderators makes sense.
Also, I think there could be more documentation and resources for the community. This is something I think I can do.
There’s a lot more that I’d love to FediWriMo become. But, I won’t get into those ideas unless there are a lot more people that want to be involved.
Conclusion
So, that’s the story of how I started FediWriMo. If you’d like to join us, please do by joining the Feddit FediWriMo Community. Of course, you can follow the community from Mastodon or your favorite platform.
And, if you like what we are doing, consider joining the FediWriMo Leaderboard. See the community for more details about TrackBear.
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