ATTENTION BELL TREE VETERANS !!!! Is The Bell Tree Forums dying????

[kayleee]

Even though I don’t post super often, I still check in and read some threads on this site basically every day, and I’ll be way more active when an event starts so I definitely don’t think the forum is dying! It does seem less active than it did when NH came out, but that’s to be expected as the game is three years old now. For a lot of the veteran users, I’m sure it seemed more active back when NL came out because we were a lot younger and could spend way more time chatting on forums

 

[-Blue-]

When NH launched this site was very busy. Was it as busy as when NL launched? Probably not, but it's also been 3 years since NH launched, Nintendo abandoned this game rather quickly, and the fanbase was 50/50 and very divisive with how Nintendo was handling the game's release, content drought, and lack of quality updates each month. You're not going to hold onto a large chunk of the fanbase by pulling this sort of stuff.

It will probably be less active until the newest game releases or Nintendo decides they really needed a 3.0 update to hold onto their consumers, but until then the forum is fine. It's not going anywhere and honestly I like this better than most of the social media crap. People over there are so miserable and looking for fights cause they have nothing else going on in their lives but to stir up drama. I'd take this peaceful and closeknit community over that crap any day.

 

[oath2order]

Whenever I come online I'm really surprised with the lack of people on...but at the end of the day if we don't want the site to die then we should be the ones coming online and making sure that activity is still happening. It is a community after all which means we all need to participate for it to grow : )

That's why I post so much!

well guess what, mimi

Well guess what TBT Users, we did. You, TBT Users, were wanting events? I could absolutely be-lieve it.

You might like this vid.

 

[Flyffel]

This is like the most active forum that's still around in 2023 idk it feels like we are browsing different forums to make that claim? I mean all the points have been addressed already like sure it's not hyperactive but it's active.

 

[Kitsuragi]

Well guess what TBT Users, we did. You, TBT Users, were wanting events? I could absolutely be-lieve it.

You might like this vid.

AHHHH I LOVE THAT VIDEO LMAOOO I'm so glad SOMEBODY got the reference or else I was gonna look stupid LMAO

 

[Rosch]

I've only been active since NH and I'm no veteran but the slow down is expected because we don't have any new games upcoming and the current ones are no longer getting updates.

But this forum gets really lively when there are events. With the Camp and Diversity coming soon, forum traffic and activity should start rising again.

 

[michealsmells]

It's funny, cause I first joined these forums during a pretty big lull in activity that was even less than what you see now, at least it felt at the time. I think the only proof that this site would be dying is if there was little to no interest in events, which is certainly not the case! In fact, with the new ones coming up, I'm sure the forums will be popping off soon!

Understandably we all have our lives and many more games to play and things to do. If I could, I'd be active on here 24/7, but unfortunately I'm pretty prone to long leaves of just lurking due to being busy or just not having much to say.

Glad to hear Chris confirm there are no plans of closing soon. I would hate to see anything happen to these forums! I've made a bunch of great friends, found a bunch of great artists, and overall had a great time here!!

 

[Jeremy]

Just out of curiosity, where do you get those rankings from? I'm wondering who the top 2 are.

And 4th and 5th.

Just from knowing the other forums. There's not really a single source for this, although that would be fun to see listed. This might not be perfect, but these are probably the biggest ones:

1. Smashboards
2. Serebii
3. The Bell Tree
4. PokéCommunity
5. Bulbagarden
6. Smogon
7. Zelda Universe

Not sure if I missed one, but these seven also have around the same level of activity right now except for Smogon, which is easily the most active Nintendo-based forum at the moment.

 

[LambdaDelta]

4 of the 7 being pokemon-centric communities holy hell (and one additional having a bit of pokemon flavor to it as well)

I mean I'm not surprised, but just seeing it is something else

pokemon really is just unhinged in popularity

 

[Midoriya]

I don't find that list surprising except for maybe Smashboards. Didn't realize people were still so into Smash, although I guess it makes sense.

Now I got to wonder how TBT ranks as a forum among all forums in existence, including non-Nintendo based ones.

 

[oath2order]

Just from knowing the other forums. There's not really a single source for this, although that would be fun to see listed. This might not be perfect, but these are probably the biggest ones:

1. Smashboards
2. Serebii
3. The Bell Tree
4. PokéCommunity
5. Bulbagarden
6. Smogon
7. Zelda Universe

Not sure if I missed one, but these seven also have around the same level of activity right now except for Smogon, which is easily the most active Nintendo-based forum at the moment.

Ohhhh yeah I forgot Serebii and Bulbagarden had forums and that Smogon existed, lol.

Yeah that all makes sense. Fascinating that of those all listed, 4 are Pokémon.

 

[Drawdler]

Just from knowing the other forums. There's not really a single source for this, although that would be fun to see listed. This might not be perfect, but these are probably the biggest ones:

1. Smashboards
2. Serebii
3. The Bell Tree
4. PokéCommunity
5. Bulbagarden
6. Smogon
7. Zelda Universe

Not sure if I missed one, but these seven also have around the same level of activity right now except for Smogon, which is easily the most active Nintendo-based forum at the moment.

These are for less kid-friendly games but GTAForum and DOOMWorld are doing incredibly well. I don’t know about Minecraft but I suspect some games with heavy modding scenes tend to have more active forums… there are some other mod scenes I won’t name here but it seems modding attracts forum support because it’s a better format for keeping info accessible, up, reachable, etc. compared to Discord. I know some other very specific forums but as far as one I actually use, unless you count Reddit, this is it. I don’t have as much interest in the other series I know have active forums, and absolutely no interest in several forums I know are active.

I’m not a belltree expert but I lurked enough over the years to say it feels less active, however compared to 99% of forums this place is still extremely active- most forums these days have a couple of friends having about with months between posts, and even forums with daily posts tend to have them condensed into one active forum whereas TBT has some level of activity on every board- the staff have done an extremely good job encouraging activities with events and somehow the community just feels like a nice little niche keeping people around.

Oh, I was also extremely active on GameFAQs for a few years and that site has had a terrible decline in activity. Subforums there which used to hit frontpage every day are dead and current frontpage subforums are a lot slower than those ever were. That’s much more clearly dying, nothing on TBT is that bad and GameFAQs isn’t even totally dead yet either.

 

[Mr.Fox]

Don't get me wrong, I like the amiibo cards because I like having specific villagers, but cycling threads back in the NL era caused a ton of traffic and the cards kind of killed that. Not being able to just get who you wanted caused people (myself included) to sit on here for hours at a time, hoping that one of the cyclers would eventually get a villager you wanted, and even then in most cases you had to wait for them to be 'in boxes' and be the first to post that you wanted them.

Needless to say...Marshal caused a lot of problems back then.

NH burned too hot too quickly thanks to the pandemic.

 

[DarthGohan1]

TBT has been around for a really long time. I highly doubt it's going anywhere anytime soon. When it comes to the activity on the forums here, there have been too many highs and lows to count over the years. For a forum focused on a series that gets about 2 new games per decade, the longevity of TBT is incredible. TLDR: don't worry, TBT will always be here

 

[Bulerias]

As someone who has been here for coming up on two decades (not a typo!), this is a pretty normal cycle post-AC game releases. And inevitably there is some discussion about TBT "dying" but it seems to be largely immune from the general trend of forum decline across the internet. My understanding is that TBT is in the top-five most active Nintendo-based forums; at least, that's what I've been saying when folks ask me about TBT. I'm not including juggernauts like Resetera, which splintered off from NeoGAF after allegations that their founder was a serial sexual abuser, and Famiboards, which itself splintered off from Resetera after some falling out among the Nintendo community there.

I don't think TBT is going away anytime soon, especially since AC is very likely going to be a tentpole franchise for Nintendo (it already is, really). I'm sure that the COVID lockdown gave New Horizons a sales boost, but the reality is that unless Nintendo colossally misfires with the Switch successor, it will continue the pattern of extremely strong software sales. And AC will 100% be part of that, as will then the inevitable uptick in forum activity here -- I've seen it happen with every single game in the series starting with the hype cycle leading up to the release of Wild World (of course, AC GCN had already come out by the time TBT emerged).

I find TBT's survival particularly interesting amidst the emergence of Twitter, Discord, Reddit, etc. I guess it's a testament to generational differences, but I never saw those sites as forum replacements, per se. They're great resources and interesting places to talk to others, but none of them engender discussion in the same way that a forum does, IMO. Clearly most of the world doesn't agree, so it's nice to see TBT trucking along. It's also a fun thing to tell people as I've gone through medical training -- "Hey, you know that Animal Crossing game that everyone was playing during the pandemic? I co-founded a forum focused on it that is STILL one of the most active Nintendo message boards on the internet." I'm damn-near as proud of that as I am of my medical diploma! Haha.

 

[oath2order]

As someone who has been here for coming up on two decades (not a typo!), this is a pretty normal cycle post-AC game releases. And inevitably there is some discussion about TBT "dying" but it seems to be largely immune from the general trend of forum decline across the internet. My understanding is that TBT is in the top-five most active Nintendo-based forums; at least, that's what I've been saying when folks ask me about TBT. I'm not including juggernauts like Resetera, which splintered off from NeoGAF after allegations that their founder was a serial sexual abuser, and Famiboards, which itself splintered off from Resetera after some falling out among the Nintendo community there.

I don't think TBT is going away anytime soon, especially since AC is very likely going to be a tentpole franchise for Nintendo (it already is, really). I'm sure that the COVID lockdown gave New Horizons a sales boost, but the reality is that unless Nintendo colossally misfires with the Switch successor, it will continue the pattern of extremely strong software sales. And AC will 100% be part of that, as will then the inevitable uptick in forum activity here -- I've seen it happen with every single game in the series starting with the hype cycle leading up to the release of Wild World (of course, AC GCN had already come out by the time TBT emerged).

I find TBT's survival particularly interesting amidst the emergence of Twitter, Discord, Reddit, etc. I guess it's a testament to generational differences, but I never saw those sites as forum replacements, per se. They're great resources and interesting places to talk to others, but none of them engender discussion in the same way that a forum does, IMO. Clearly most of the world doesn't agree, so it's nice to see TBT trucking along. It's also a fun thing to tell people as I've gone through medical training -- "Hey, you know that Animal Crossing game that everyone was playing during the pandemic? I co-founded a forum focused on it that is STILL one of the most active Nintendo message boards on the internet." I'm damn-near as proud of that as I am of my medical diploma! Haha.

I have no idea how Discord is even possible as a forum replacement but somehow it's trying to be, and somehow people are actually using it as that. It's absolutely terrible as a forum. Reddit, I can kind of see as a forum replacement, but even then it's fractured. You have the problem of "everyone wants to be a mod of their own place". Which results in having the following subreddits, as an example.

• /r/ac_newhorizons
• /r/ACNewHorizons
• /r/NewHorizonsAC
• /r/acnh
• /r/ACNHFandom
• /r/ACNHTurnips
• /r/ACTurnip
• /r/StalkMarket
• /r/ACTurnips
• /r/ACTrade
• /r/ACNH_RealTime
• /r/ACNHTrade
• /r/AnimalCrossingTrades
• /r/ACNH_RecipeTrade
• /r/ACNHVillagerTrade
• /r/AnimalCrossingDesign
• /r/HorizonDesigns
• /r/ACNHCustomDesigns
• /r/ACNH_Fashion
• /r/ACNHstreetwear
• /r/ACQR
• /r/ACNHIslandInspo
• /r/ACNH_Photographs

And I know there's more. There's a bunch of fractured communities, as opposed to here, which has one place for NH Trades of all kinds, including turnips one place for NH fashion. It's all very limited, which is good.

Of course, let's not forget that each of these subreddits may have their own different rules per subreddit, and limits on who can post when.

Edit: Oh and this place is great for the TBT Bells, as I can use those as opposed to in-game things that I would have to trade on other sites. All I gotta do is post a little bit and bam there's 30 more DIYs.

 

[Drawdler]

^ Back in the day, people made their own fansites instead. I even did that using Freewebs, and became a moderator on a tight-knit forum with half a dozen regulars (but, despite the small userbase, it was very active for its size with daily posts and a lot of first scoop news).

When you consider small fractured subreddits v small fractured fansites, I don’t think that aspect changed much. A lot of those sites had valid and unique info too that was just lost as sites shut down.

Not sure what my point is here but interesting. If there’s anything to take away from that, it goes back to the old idea that on 00’s net people were doing it more for the fun than any clout. I do still think some niche subreddits popped up for fun though. And honestly for a large fandom I WOULD rather see some things curated/separated, the custom designs sub is probably useful. While reddit lets you flair tags, subs and the site in general are really fickle and inconsistent about filtering them so it isn’t the ideal solution, you also can’t filter them on your main feed if you care about that. That’s where the alt subs come in. I don’t really think that’s actually an issue tbh.

 

[DarthGohan1]

I find TBT's survival particularly interesting amidst the emergence of Twitter, Discord, Reddit, etc. I guess it's a testament to generational differences, but I never saw those sites as forum replacements, per se. They're great resources and interesting places to talk to others, but none of them engender discussion in the same way that a forum does, IMO. Clearly most of the world doesn't agree, so it's nice to see TBT trucking along.

When we were around TBT during its first few years I always felt there was something special about TBT. There was a strong feeling of community here compared to a lot of other forums at the time, where there might be some people who had been around a while or there were forum inside jokes, but not like TBT. A lot of people put a lot of effort into making TBT a better, more interesting place to hangout on the internet. I think this is a big reason why TBT has survived so long. Probably helps that AC has blown up into big mainstream series now too.

So while Reddit, Discord, Facebook, Twitter etc. have all emerged as the default community hubs over the past decade or so, I have never once felt on any of those sites anywhere close to the sense of community TBT had/has. Facebook groups are mostly just buying and selling stuff related to a particular topic. Discord is impossible to see history, browse old threads, it's just convenient for the present moment. While there are some good guides/knowledge/q&a history on Reddit, there is no real sense of community for most users on any decent-sized sub; and the overall quality of discussion on both Twitter and Reddit is usually hovering somewhere between dumb and toxic.

It's so cool to see TBT surviving almost 2 decades now, and I'm sure it will be around a lot longer. It's a special place on the internet. I wish there were more places like it. People help each other out, friendly discussion with almost no negativity, a very diverse userbase, and it's always here whenever you feel like popping back in.

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

Edit: Oh and this place is great for the TBT Bells, as I can use those as opposed to in-game things that I would have to trade on other sites. All I gotta do is post a little bit and bam there's 30 more DIYs.

I think the forum currency is potentially the best thing about the Bell Tree Forums. A little TBT goes such a long way now when it comes to buying in-game furniture/clothing/DIYs/etc.

Heck, I've seen a lot of people give away a bunch of that stuff for free on here, meanwhile literally anywhere else on the internet is asking for insane amounts of IGB or NMT (at least, amounts that are insane to me, because I don't hoard NMTs and I hate hate hate having to drop tens of millions of IGB). Trading on here is so quick and easy, and the review system works fine enough. I honestly feel bad for people who don't know about this site. They could be saving themselves so much time and in-game currency!!!

Anyway I think TBTF will be around for decades to come and I for one look forward to earning the inevitable Virtual Reality Holographic Animated Turnip Hologram Collectible on April 1st, 2043. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Venn]

I know TBT is a forums, but I see it more as a community overall for Animal Crossing fans. As someone who is coming on their 10th anniversary of being here (oh my!), there has been times where I went in active, but I've always found my way back. During the New Lead era, (where I joined mostly) I was active then disappeared. I came back for bit, then disappeared again. When New Horizons came, I came back along with others, and I haven't really left yet. Yes, I have posted less and less, but I am always here for the events. As long as staff maintains their amazing efforts for this site, I truly do not think we are going anywhere for the time being.