NaNoWriMo forums

The NaNoWriMo forums are the primary online hub of activity for Wrimos to communicate with each other. They are by far the largest facet of the NaNoWriMo website and consume the most site resources. Many Wrimos solely attend to the forums (often when in-person meetings are not available) and some past participants may continue to frequent the forums even if they are not doing Nano. The site's largest surge is during November, and there are also significant surges during October, Camp Sessions, and in the month before each camp session. However, the sense of community is so strong that the forums still see activity when there is no NaNoWriMo event coming up or currently happening. 
The forums serve many purposes: to let Wrimos gather and talk to each other about writing, to discuss their novels and the noveling experience, to find Wrimos in their area via regional lounges, and to procrastinate on reaching 50,000 words. Many Wrimos may form new friendships with people in threads they frequent, and some forums, such as the games and roleplaying forums are practically a culture unto themselves.
The forums have been around since 2002 and originally ran on PhpBB. The tech team used Xoops and later Drupal for the forum software. From fall 2011 to fall 2019, the site and forums were custom-built on Ruby on Rails. As of September 2019, the forums run on Discourse.
As of October 2016, the forums are only visible to logged-in users. Blame the spammers.
== Currently Active Forums and their Categories ==
These are the current forums as of April 2021.
*VIP Lounge (only viewable to Trust Level 3 and higher users)
*Official Stuff
**30 Covers, 30 Days
**Come Write In
**Covid Concerns
*Sponsor Offers (formerly "Special Offers and Greetings from NaNo Sponsors" until NaNoWriMo 2019)
*Camp NaNoWriMo (formerly "Campfire Circle" until Camp NaNoWriMo 2020)
*Support & Tech Help (formerly Tech Help & Site Bug Reports until NaNoWriMo 2019)
**Rules & Regs (formerly Rules, Regulations, and Other Minutiae until NaNoWriMo 2019)
**Suggestions & Feedback
**Themes
**Testing 1, 2, 3
**Bug Reports
*The Coffeehouse
*Newbies (exclamation mark removed in NaNoWriMo 2019)
*Story Development (formerly Plot Doctoring until NaNoWriMo 2019)
**Character Cafe
**Grammar & Style (formerly Writing 101 until NaNoWriMo 2019. In Resources and Writing support pre-2015)
**Appellation Station
**Worldbuilding
**Adoption Society
*Novel Draft Aftercare
**Critiques & Feedback
**Predators and Editors
*Reference Desk (formerly "Character and Plot Realism")
**Personal Experience
**Experts
*Finding Your Crew
**Teens (affinity group)
**20s
**30s & 40s
**50s+
**LGBTQIA+ (affinity group)
**Mess Hall
**University
**Pillow Fort (affinity group)
**Writers of Color (affinity group)
**Writing Groups, Assemble! (moved up to the Camp NaNoWriMo forum for the Camp NaNoWriMo 2020 season)
*Reaching 50K
**Overachievers: Beyond 50k
**NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul
**Prepping & Outlining
**Shoutouts
**This is Going Better Than I Hoped
**Writing Challenges (formerly Word Wars, Prompts, & Sprints until NaNoWriMo 2019)
*Helpful Resources (Formerly Helpful Resources and Sites until NaNoWriMo 2019)
**Software & Tech (Formerly NaNo Technology until NaNoWriMo 2019)
**Soundtracks & Music (Formerly NaNo Soundtracks until NaNoWriMo 2019)
**Social Media
***Discord and Off-Site Groups
**Artisans (Formerly NaNo Artisans until NaNoWriMo 2019. In Outside the Box pre-2015)
*Genre Lounges
*Life After NaNo
**Big, Fun, Scary Adventures (formerly The Year of Doing Big, Fun, Scary Things Together until NaNoWriMo 2019)
*Diversions & Procrastination (Formerly "Games, Diversions, and Other Exciting Forms of Procrastination" until NaNoWriMo 2019. formerly "How to Procrastinate Effectively")
**Roleplaying (formerly Role Playing and Communal Story Building until NaNoWriMo 2019)
**Polling Booth
**Sidekick Stable
*Outside the Box (formerly Off Topic until NaNoWriMo 2019)
**Gamers & Gaming (formerly Virtual Worlds and located in NaNo Groups until NaNoWriMo 2019)
**Fans and Critics (was in NaNo Groups until NaNoWriMo 2019)
**NaNo Rebels (was in NaNo Groups 2015-2018, lived in Outside the Box before that)
**Script Frenzy
**Classifieds (formerly Marketing, Self-promotion, and Stuff for Sale until NaNoWriMo 2019)
*Regional Lounges
== 2018 Forum List and their Categories ==
This list is preserved for posterity and to aid in updating the above list, as the forum structure substantially changed in 2019. It may be moved to a separate page.
*Official Stuff
**Preview Site Bug Reports
**30 Covers, 30 Days
**Special Offers and Greetings from NaNo Sponsors
*NaNo Tips and Strategies
**NaNo Prep
**Reference Desk (formerly "Character and Plot Realism")
**Plot Doctoring
**Writing 101 (in Resources and Writing support pre-2015)
**Appellation Station
**Character Cafe
**Worldbuilding
*Mechanics, Logistics, and Other Technical Stuff
**Rules, Regulations, and Other Minutiae
**Site and Message Board Feedback and Suggestions
**Tech Help & Site Bug Reports
*Life During NaNo
**All-Ages Coffee House
**Reaching 50,000 (in Nano Tips and Strategies pre-2015)
**NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul (formerly "I Hate Myself and Want to Die")
**Beyond 50k (in Nano Tips and Strategies pre-2015)
**This is Going Better Than I'd Hoped (formerly "This is Working Far Better Than I Had Hoped" and "This is Going Better Than I Expected")
**Word Wars, Prompts, & Sprints
**Shoutouts
**Dangerous Writers: Night of Writing Dangerously
*Resources and Writing Support
**Adoption Society
**Social Media
**Helpful Resources and Sites
**NaNo Artisans (in Outside the Box pre-2015)
**NaNo Soundtracks
**NaNo Technology
**The Polling Booth
*Genre Lounges
*NaNo Groups
**Newbies!
**NaNo University
**Come Write In
**Age Group: Teens
**Age Group: 20s
**Age Group: 30s & 40s
**Age Group: 50+
**YWP Alumni
**Mess Hall
**NaNo Rebels (in Outside the Box pre-2015)
**Fans and Critics
**Writing Groups and Clubs
**Virtual Worlds
*Outside the Box
**Off Topic
**Script Frenzy
**Marketing, Self-promotion, and Stuff for Sale
**Games, Diversions, and Other Exciting Forms of Procrastination (formerly "How to Procrastinate Effectively")
**Role Playing and Communal Story Building
*I Wrote a Novel, Now What? (previously December and Beyond)
**The Year of Doing Big, Fun, Scary Things Together
**Critiques, Feedback, and Novel Swaps (In Resources and Writing Support in 2014)
**Novel Draft Aftercare (In Resources and Writing Support in 2014)
**Life After NaNoWriMo
*Regional Lounges
There are also separate forums for Camp NaNoWriMo that appear during camp season. In 2011 the forum was simply named Camp NaNoWriMo and appeared in the December and Beyond section; however, in 2012 the following forums became active:
* Campfire Circle
* Camp Tech Help and Feedback
* Finding Cabin Mates (added 2013)
* Special Offers and Greetings from Camp NaNo Sponsors (added 2013)
== Former NaNoWriMo forums ==
*The Great NaNoWriMo Book Drive in 2010 - the book drive did not return for 2011
*Want to swap trading cards? (2012 season)
*NaNoVideo (2011-2014)
*NaNo Missed Connections
*Inspirational Quotes
*NaNoWriMo Alumni Lounge (for returning Wrimos)
*Important Things We Need to Tell You
**(Late) Breaking News, a similar forum
** Announcements from Headquarters, a similar forum used in the off-season before 2011
*Teaching NaNoWriMo (revived as NaNo University, which briefly had separate forums for students and teachers before being combined into the current forum)
*Me And My Genre (replaced by separate Genre Lounges)
*What I'm Going To Do With My 2002 Novel (the spiritual predecessor to the I Wrote a Novel, Now What? forums)
*NaNo Veterans (Military) (succeeded by the Military Lounge and then the Mess Hall)
*Life as a Municipal Liaison (public forum, succeeded by the private ML forums)
*NaNoWriMo in the Classroom (succeeded by the Young Writers Program)
* Camp Tech Help and Feedback (removed when Camp NaNoWriMo was folded into the main website with the 2019 new site launch)
* Special Offers and Greetings from Camp NaNo Sponsors (added 2013, folded into NaNo Sponsors forum in 2019)
* Finding Cabin Mates (Added 2013. Folded into the Writing Groups, Assemble! forum for the 2020 Camp NaNoWriMo season and moved to the Camp NaNoWriMo section)
*Dangerous Writers: Night of Writing Dangerously (removed in NaNoWriMo 2019 because the event was not happening)
*Preview Site Bug Reports (Existed in summer 2019 while transitioning to a new website)
*YWP Alumni (removed in NaNoWriMo 2019)
==External Links==
NaNoWriMo forums
Category:Lists
Category:NaNoWriMo forums
Category:NaNoWriMo website
Category:Former NaNoWriMo forums