It's so frustrating, because NaNoWriMo has done so much good for so many writers. I've only 'won' a handful of times, but, like you, I often write as much as 30k in a month that otherwise I would've have, and all three of my publish novels were worked on during Nano events.

I've also encouraged teens to join the YWP, and the idea that this kind of thing has been happening over there for a while -- the kids' website and other testimonials have shown patterns of people using the forums inappropriately -- makes me sick and sad, because they definitely should have been safe there.

The org is definitely at fault for not taking appropriate action immediately, and if this causes a ton of people to leave or them to lose their sponsorships -- so be it. People can take part in the spirit of writing a novel in November without using their glitchy website anyway!