NaNoWriMo, as I explained in my previous NiIL, relies primarily on a forum set up for users to interact and create a community of practice. However, this forum itself is structured very differently than stereotypical forums and creates an entirely different environment than one normally sees. To explain this, I must first explain a little bit of internet speak.
A newbie is, rather obviously, a person who is new to a forum. They generally don't know the rules, are somewhat naive and post threads that are off-topic or just generally disliked. An oldbie or oldie is someone who has been around the forum for a while. There isn't usually a specific time frame wherein this transition occurs. A newbie simply evolves into an oldbie when they have assimilated the culture and custom of the forum.
The culmination of these internet evolutions is the reg, or regular. This person is generally found in one section of the forum, like the Writer's or Chatterbox in my Gaiaonline example. They are extremely knowledgable about the forum structure, information and dynamics. In some forums, an oldbie and a reg are interchangeable. However, for this, I will stick to the usage with which I am most familiar- reg being a more respected version of an oldbie.
This dynamic occurs in forums because of their longevity. Unlike chatrooms, which happen in real time only as long as members are present, forum discussions can last for days, months and even years. Depending on how much of your time, your life, you dedicate to the forum is roughly equivalent to your status in its cultural heirarchy.
This dynamic is almost nowhere to be found in the NaNo forums. The only place I found mention of "newbies" was in the forum specifically created for first time WriMos. While I haven't been able to search through every post ever made, but I shouldn't have to. Dynamics and phrases surrounding the newbie/oldbie dichotomy are nearly ubiquitous to forum culture, seen in the forums of kid's websites like Neopets, not just internet cesspools like 4chan.
Why then might NaNo be immune to the innate desire of the internet to classify people? What makes it so special? Some forums escape this by being very tiny (roleplay and fan forums created using the website Proboards come to mind). But NaNo is not tiny, not to say the least. Hundreds of thousands of members use these forums every year and each year the number of participating members increases drastically.
NaNo actually gets its classless internet society from something very unusual to forums. Every year the Office of Letters and Light, or OLL, wipes the forums clean starting in late September. This probably occurs due to the OLL's status as a charitable organization. They dedicate time and money not only to NaNoWriMo every November, but to school writing programs, building and filling libraries and otherwise bringing writing to those with less privilege. They survive off of donations, donations that undoubtedly won't cover the bandwidth needed to support not only the millions of new threads posted in November, but all the old ones too.
Along with this comes the idea of a "clean slate"; wiping the forums clean allows people with questions about their current project not to be lost in a sea of "What is my character wearing?" from 4 years back. And this "clean slate" is what effectively removes any classification based on time. No one can prove they've dedicated years to these forums, because there is no evidence left- it is all wiped in September. You can't tell who is a newbie or who is an oldbie on the forums. It doesn't show how many years they've participated or how dedicated they are. Everyone starts out as a newbie, together, each year. Some show their hand by participating in the Newbies! forum, but even then, no one is judged for their newness.
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