The Wipe

It's come.

The dreaded day.

The emotional wreckage.

That's right- the end has arrived. Every year, the forums of the YWP are wiped of their posts so the site doesn't explode. This year was no exception.

On October 2nd, the YWP closed for a few hours while the mods erased every post that's been made in the year, except for a few exceptions like the Graduation thread.

Then it was empty. A blank slate.

Everyone had been working hard to find and save their favourite threads so they can put them up again after the Wipe. User emu made a thread where NaNoers can claim threads to remake so that almost every thread is accounted for.

Another thread appeared in shadow of the Wipe, where basically potato cupcakes are baked, popcorn is thrown, screams are heard, and chaos breaks out as everyone sat in front of their screen and watched as the hour grew closer. Thanks, Splash, for heightening my terror.

Though this was my first Wipe, I was told what to expect by some NaNoers who've lived through previous Wipes. Here's a quote from Inktail099, explaining what would happen.

For a little bit the site will be unavailable, so no one's really sure if the mods do it forum by forum or thread by thread. Then, we return, and everything's gone. Last year, I actually ended up online at the same time the mods were putting back the pinned threads--it was pretty cool lol.    -Inktail099

So, the site was closed for a while so that the mods could do their thing. After much panicking and communicating with other means, users could come back to an empty site (except for those exceptions :) and begin putting their saved threads back up.

Here's Brownie's perspective on the Wipe as a newer NaNoer!

I'd heard of the Wipe, of course. I had a vague idea of rebooting threads and clean slates, but I didn't know how big of a deal it was until the threads started popping up. Wipe Watchers, Thread Remakes. It suddenly became real to me that all of the incredible pieces of work stored on the forums would be destroyed, wiped from the face of the planet.

I saw people panicking about saving their work and first-timers like myself almost morbidly curious about this impending disaster. Of course, we knew that it was for good that this happened. Like a forest fire clearing away the dead brush, old, unused threads and posts long since at the bottom of the replies would be destroyed to make way for the new.
Still frightening, though. Perfect for the season.

So here's what it looked like to me. October 2nd, 2019. It was a normal afternoon. I logged into NaNo, checking my role plays and then Recess. To my surprise, I saw a good number of people freaking out about something. Further investigation revealed that the first topics had been wiped, and Recess was next on the block. It was fascinating. I watched in curious horror as the number of threads ticked down to only two, the sticky-ed posts. Then, Recess opened once again, the community rebooted with incredible speed and coordination. It was amazing, really.

It was like a well-oiled machine, and people mostly picked up where they left off. I continued watching the events play out as each topic was reduced to a tiny fraction of its previous threads, then bumped back up by the fast-moving NaNoers.
Games quickly began, roleplays rebooted, the plot ER was reopened.

I love how tightly knit of a community this website is, with everyone pitching in to get the site back to itself as quickly as possible. 

-Brownie

Wrapping up, I hope you were all prepared for the 2019 Wipe! Good luck getting your threads back up and cheers to another year of the YWP. See you next time!