Bell Tree Direct - 6.14.20 - Events, Giveaways, and More

[Chris]

Oh no no no no no. That was not how I wanted that conversation to go AT ALL. I had to leave for work, sorry. I want to make what I stand for very clear. I will start out with some background so you know I am not just blowing smoke. I am a person of color and part of the LGBTQ+ community (if for some reason whoever is reading this needs specifics, go ahead and ask). I was definitely not asking for the colors to stop signifying skin colors. That was far from my main point; in fact, that was just a refutation to Vrisnem saying it was not about race. Here's what I actually stand for:

-I wanted the TBT staff to have some acknowledgement of racial diversity publically rather than brush it off and avoid talking about current events which I was pretty sure they were trying to (past tense was and there is still plausible deniability there so form your own opinion).

-I wanted the TBT staff to also internally consider their own practices regarding racial diversity because I think now is a great time to do so. The world is changing right now and considering racial diversity on a platform that you moderate and that has so many people of color who visit is not at all a bad thing. I think it would make TBT better for it and people need to be accountable for their practices.

-I think the contest is not a bad idea. Why? We should celebrate our racial diversity like we do LGBTQ+ diversity! Here's what I'm really saying, if you wanna celebrate diversity do it for real. Don't do it half way. Especially now, we need to all recognize "I am from this race and even though I am oppressed, I love myself and I am glad to be my race." That is what we should be doing rather than sweeping it under the rug. It would also be cool if some people of color took charge of the whole celebrating diversity thing. About the colors of the contest title, I would love if you kept them skin tones but changed it to be better colors. As someone else mentioned, the darker colors are ashy.

-Regarding the contest aspect, art for me is expression. It is taking your deepest thoughts/feelings and converting them into expression which impacts an audience. The audience part is one of the most important parts of art, technically speaking. I was under the impression the judging is based on technical skill and how powerful the expression is, not how well you incorporate diversity into your daily life and practice. Expressing your celebrations about diversity is a good thing.

-One thing I think is a little messed up in my opinion, why recognize pride without recognizing Black Lives Matter and racial diversity in general? That's the hot topic right now and it's really the one I think we should focus on celebrating right now. Not that pride doesn't matter, I love pride, I just think racial issues are causing more people to suffer right now. I also think it is not wrong to be celebrating pride related stuff right now too. I think it would only be right to recognize race right now, at least a little bit. I can only speak for myself but I think I at least would love some celebration of my race right now. More than just the celebration part too, what I'm mainly getting at is that I thought the TBT staff was trying to recognize what's going on right now and what they were doing to acknowledge it. Since apparently they weren't, I really wish that they would. Although it seems there is a lot going on around here regarding acknowledgement of LGBTQ+ people on the site, I don't feel the same type of acknowledgement as a person of color. That's only my experience though.

In conclusion, I'm not asking for you to change something as superficial (to me at least it's superficial) as the contest colors, I want action and acknowledgement. I would also ask that people not bully the staff more than you have to. It is important to speak up, still people won't listen to you unless you frame it in a way they can receive it and then you can lead them where you need to take them. By the way Vrisnem, I am interested in discussing with a staff member of color everything this conversation led to if any would like to talk about it... and I'll ping you since you seem most interested in replying here. @Vrisnem

(sorry for the huge debate, I hardly ever do this I swear ; - ; )

All we did was increase the saturation and orientation of the gradient. The colours were misinterpreted as something they weren't, so they were adjusted. Had the font been larger/bolder I'm sure that the colours would have been more obvious from the beginning.

The initial inspiration behind the event would be completely unknown if I had not openly stated it in here, so I'm not going to address anything regarding us choosing to highlight one topic over another. The thread was worded, and the colours selected, to not match anything specific. It was open to interpretation, and when it was misinterpreted as leaning more toward one option than the others then we made the decision to alter it slightly to better convey the original meaning (or lack thereof). The thread itself lists nine examples of diversity. There is no right or wrong one to go with.

LGBT acknowledgement may appear more prevalent and this is because this community have been actively making themselves heard on TBT. It is very much a community-driven movement. e.g. the pronoun feature was added based on months of them battling for it. If you feel POC acknowledgement is understated, then be part of the driving force to change it. We do not know something is wrong if it is not brought to our attention. We can only take action on something if we know what that community wants. Even here, I do not know exactly what you want from us.

We do not, and have never, asked people anything regarding their race when they apply for our team. So if you want to know if racial diversity is something we consider when adding to the staff the answer is no. We do not collect this data from individuals so cannot make a decision based on it. It is perfectly understandable if you disagree with our approach, but morally we feel this is the best way to handle it. On that note, I was offered a(n offline) position two days ago and their email made clear it was because I would 'tick a box', so to speak, on their team. I had been debating whether or not to take it, and based on this thread and a conversation it prompted within the staff I ended up sending a polite email to reject their offer as soon as I woke-up this morning. So I'll say thank you to everyone who opened my eyes to this and made me realise it is not something I could ever endorse no matter what side of the fence I'm stood on.

 

[Rubombee]

This would be an example of why there isn't a large limit for pronouns! We do not want people to misuse this feature.

Oops, sorry to reply to this after the whole convo that's happened in there, but I was asleep. ^^;

Anyway, yes, I do understand very much why this character limit was added! But I just wanted to say that when it makes one unable to list their multiple pronouns (so, not misusing it at all), it's a little sad.
I wonder if the user title has a character limit too, since I can fit my pronouns & other stuff in there? From what you said, Vrisnem, I assume it's just a larger limit. Maybe the pronouns' limit could be at least closer to this one? What I'm getting to is that the user title could very well be misused too, like any other features pretty much! Someone who'd go out of their way to misuse exactly the pronouns would be doing so on purpose.

I may be too insistent on this, apologies if I'm being annoying, but since I understand why the staff doesn't want to completely remove the character limit, I'm simply asking for it to be increased so people with multiple pronouns can fit them all! <3

 

[Chris]

Oops, sorry to reply to this after the whole convo that's happened in there, but I was asleep. ^^;

Anyway, yes, I do understand very much why this character limit was added! But I just wanted to say that when it makes one unable to list their multiple pronouns (so, not misusing it at all), it's a little sad.
I wonder if the user title has a character limit too, since I can fit my pronouns & other stuff in there? From what you said, Vrisnem, I assume it's just a larger limit. Maybe the pronouns' limit could be at least closer to this one? What I'm getting to is that the user title could very well be misused too, like any other features pretty much! Someone who'd go out of their way to misuse exactly the pronouns would be doing so on purpose.

I may be too insistent on this, apologies if I'm being annoying, but since I understand why the staff doesn't want to completely remove the character limit, I'm simply asking for it to be increased so people with multiple pronouns can fit them all! <3

I don't think people using multiple was taken into account, but I'll make sure Jeremy sees this. So we have an idea of what to go off of, how many characters would you need to include everything?

 

[rosetti]

Thank you for changing the contest title! Looks super pretty

I’m also super excited about the fair returning, it’s my favourite thing about the bell tree and I always discover new people around those times, the community and atmosphere is just so lovely and fun - so glad to see it come back and I can’t wait!!

 

[Rubombee]

I don't think people using multiple was taken into account, but I'll make sure Jeremy sees this. So we have an idea of what to go off of, how many characters would you need to include everything?

Thank you!
Okay so, I counted and mine takes 20 characters (with the space & comma). But it really depends, like, some people might want to list theirs as the full set and that could get long; and I'm not in this case so I can't really speak about it, but people might choose longer pronouns too… So maybe 30 characters? Or 60? Or just make it the same limit as the user title, which sounds simpler than deciding on a new limit?

 

[dino]

thanks for all the hard work, bell tree ! super excited for new collectibles and the fair. and appreciate the staff including the pronoun option and getting rid of the nondisclosed option on gender.

Post automatically merged: Jun 16, 2020

I don't think people using multiple was taken into account, but I'll make sure Jeremy sees this. So we have an idea of what to go off of, how many characters would you need to include everything?

to add to @Rubombee 's count, my two pronouns listed out three conjugation levels, take 31 spaces !
i think the important pronoun thing to remember is: if someone uses neopronouns - they are likely to want to list it out completely, because people often don't know how to conjugate them. that's not a need with the three most common english pronouns. so in theory, if someone uses two neopronouns, which themselves have no set limit in length, this person could use up to 60 characters to explain their use fully (ex. pfae/pfaer/pfaers/pfaerself AND vhon/vhon/vhons/vhonself).

 

[MasterM64]

Glad to hear all this good news (especially about the return of TBT Fair)! I look forward to seeing more details for TBTF. Also, congratulations to the winners!

 

[Sheep Villager]

What exactly is the TBT fair? I'm sure the lot of us who joined during New Horizons release have no clue.

Does it take bells to take part in? Should I be saving? What is it?​

 

[Chris]

What exactly is the TBT fair? I'm sure the lot of us who joined during New Horizons release have no clue.

Does it take bells to take part in? Should I be saving? What is it?​

It is when we hold a lot of events and contests at a single time, and participation earns you tickets to obtain prizes. The Fair has it's own unique currency so do not worry about saving bells.

 

[MasterM64]

...

Does it take bells to take part in? Should I be saving? What is it?​

The only reason you should save up TBT in anticipation of the event is if you want to buy extra collectibles released during it since there will be a lot of people selling and trading prizes most likely.

 

[jo_electric]

I’m excited to see what the fair will entail. This will be my first. Thanks for all the updates!

 

[Locket]

FAIR??????? LETS GO

also do we have an update on the sunrise/sunset/night themes? possible woods theme?

 

[Emzy]

The only reason you should save up TBT in anticipation of the event is if you want to buy extra collectibles released during it since there will be a lot of people selling and trading prizes most likely.

Hello!! I hope you don't mind me chiming but are the collectibles also able to be purchased by the participation ticket currency or is it still just bells?

 

[Cadbberry]

Hello!! I hope you don't mind me chiming but are the collectibles also able to be purchased by the participation ticket currency or is it still just bells?

Vrisnem said it would still be fair tickets, so be sure to participate in all the events you see

 

[Emzy]

Vrisnem said it would still be fair tickets, so be sure to participate in all the events you see

Thanks for replying!! I wasn't sure if the prizes were different to the collectibles cx but thanks for clarifying!!

 

[Stella-Io]

I am, so, so very late to this.

But, PRONOUNS OMG. As others have said they can't fit all of theirs into the box (I was trying to put she/her/they/them but it gets cut off by 2 so I settled for she/they hoping people would know they can use she/her and they/them with me) but OMG FINALLY YES. Thank you staff!

Maybe this art contest will be able to get me out of the rut and back to drawing. I haven't done anythin for months ;-;

 

[Zane]

How y’all gonna have rainbow feather not be a prize during pride month

 

[Hat']

Ahhhh yesssss bell tree fair!!!!

 

[thedragmeme]

My body is ready for the tbt fair

 

[alv4]

Awesomee!
Thanks for all the updates