Bell Tree Direct - 6.4.23 - Spring Cleaning, Summer Events

Good evening and welcome to a new Bell Tree Direct! We have many different things to announce tonight including two upcoming events, staff changes, a long list of items to clean up on the forum, and a new integration between our forum and Discord server.

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Celebrating Diversity Event, Coming This Week!

Our Celebrating Diversity event is coming back this Wednesday! It will take place from June 7, 2023 - June 17, 2023. In this event, we'll come together to celebrate our diverse community by completing a single creative task. We look forward to seeing your inspiring creations again starting this Wednesday!

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Returning Soon, Camp Bell Tree!

In other event news, our next major event is also coming soon. Camp Bell Tree is returning July 21, 2023 - August 20, 2023! In this event, the community will be split into multiple "cabins" that work together as teams. The cabins compete against each other by earning points in a variety of different tasks. Which cabin will end on top this time?

While the event's official end date is August 20th, the tasks to complete will actually end about half a week earlier. As we did in 2021, early signups will be opening before the start date, so be on the lookout for that in the coming weeks. This year's camp will also have a theme... any guesses about what it might be?

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Staff Changes​

Many of our staff members are changing roles. While Kaiaa, LaBelleFleur, Laudine, Nefarious, and pandapples are switching to project staff, Mairmalade is moving back to the moderator role.

Moderator Project Staff
Kaiaa
LaBelleFleur
Laudine
Nefarious
pandapples

Project Staff Moderator
Mairmalade

Finally, Murray is retiring from the TBT staff. Murray has been a staff member since 2015 when he started as a forum moderator. In 2018 he switched to the project staff role where he continued to help with events. The events he helped run over his eight years as a staff member include The Bell Tree Fair 2016, TBT's Fifth Annual Easter Egg Hunt (2017), The Bell Tree Fair 2017, The Bell Tree Fair 2020, and TBT's Season of Giving 2020. Thank you, Murray, for your hard work and contributions to the TBT community over those years!

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New Forum/Discord Integration​

Over the next week, we'll be making many changes to our Discord server. To start, we'll be connecting the forum and server together. This will allow for new features such as:

• Linking your forum and Discord accounts.
  
• Forced username matching.
• New role and other perks for connected users.
• Optionally receiving forum notifications through Discord.
• Forum thread promotions to relevant channels.
• Role syncing with events.

We will post more details about how to connect your accounts once it's set up later this week. There will also be several changes to the channel layout, which I'll talk about in a few sections below.

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Board Changes​

Before spring is officially over, we're doing some spring cleaning by making many changes to our boards and stickied threads across the forum. The Turnip Stalk Exchange and Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival boards will be removed and replaced with prefixes. The Airport is also getting another prefix for new users looking for help. The Basement will be given a more distinct purpose - only forum games. The more chatty discussion threads that are currently there will be moved to Brewster's, but will be magically excluded from earning bells.

Board:	Action:
Island Journals	Move under General AC Discussion and add a field to select which game the journal is for
The Airport	New Getting Started prefix (for new users looking for help with fruit, items, etc.)
The Airport	Remove filtering box from the top of the board
Turnip Stalk Exchange	Remove and merge into The Airport board with a new prefix
Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival	Remove and merge into General AC Discussion with a prefix
Nintendo Treehouse	Add prefixes for more games (feel free to make suggestions)
Gamer's Lounge	Add prefixes for more games (feel free to make suggestions)
Brewster's Cafe	Perfect the spelling, Brewster's Café!
The Basement	Move non-game threads to Brewster's Café (they will still be excluded from earning bells)
The Cellar	Potentially merge into The Basement (TBD)

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Thread Changes​

Next, we went board-by-board through our stickied threads. A lot of them are outdated and some were even created an entire decade ago. We figured it was time to freshen things up around the forum. Over the next few weeks, many will be removed, while others will be updated or recreated.

Board:	Thread:	Action:
The Bulletin Board	Bell Tree Directs - Info and Archive	Unstick
Bell Tree HQ	The Information Desk	Merge into the FAQ thread for a combined FAQ and Q&A
	The Signature Guide	Update / replace. Make applicable for both avatars and signatures
	Ask The Staff: Non site-related questions!	Unstick
	Bell Tree Weeks - Official Thread	Unstick
TBT Marketplace	Shop / Collectibles / Events / Restocks Discussion	Update or unstick (TBD)
	The Bell System: Beginner's Guide	Update or merge into FAQ thread in Bell Tree HQ (TBD)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons	TBT Island Tours	Officially close project and unstick for now (will possibly return in the future)
	ACNH Board Post Quality & Etiquette Reminder	Unstick
Nook's Cranny	(Closed) The Looking For Thread (New Horizons Edition)	Unstick
	Auction Rules & Guidelines	Unstick
Animal Crossing: New Leaf	Official Dream Address Thread ☾ V.2	Move to The Train Station
The Train Station (AC:NL Online)	Official Turnip Prices Thread	Unstick, individual threads can be made
	Wi-Fi Ratings	Unstick
	Guidelines for Animal Crossing Online	Unstick
Re-Tail	Rules, Guidelines, and Blacklisting	Unstick
Villager Trading Plaza	Official Hold my Villager thread	Unstick
	DO NOT MAKE BLACKLISTING/SCAMMER THREADS	Unstick
	READ FIRST: How to Use the Villager Trading Plaza & Rules	Update / replace with info on how to use the board and filters.
General AC Discussion	Old School AC Week: Return to Town Photo Event	Unstick
Animal Crossing	Old School AC Week: GameCube Item Code Giveaway	Unstick
	Animal Crossing Character Guide	Unstick
Animal Crossing: City Folk	Links To All The Best Guides On TBT	Update links for historical value
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer	Coverage of Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer news on Animal Crossing World	Unstick
Nintendo Treehouse	Smash Bros. Ultimate Discussion Thread	Unstick
Museum	Profile edits: Avatars/Signatures/etc.	Unstick
	GFX Resources	Unstick
	Please keep all art shops and transaction threads in the Museum Shop board	Unstick
The Basement	General Discussion	Remake in Brewster's (no bells)
	What's Bothering You?	Move to Brewster's (no bells)
	Place your random thoughts.	Move to Brewster's (no bells)
	Unpopular opinion thread	Move to Brewster's (no bells)

Thanks to Mick for helping me organize the long list of things to clean up into this usable format. Also thank you to all of the staff members who gave their input about these changes. We still have a few decisions to finalize, but we'll begin making these changes very soon.

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Discord Changes​

In addition to the added forum integration, we'll also be making some changes to the Discord server's layout so it will look like this:

Town Hall

• #announcements
• #rules

Plaza

• #general
• #gaming
• #memes
• #creative

Animal Crossing

• #new-horizons
• #pocket-camp
• #general-ac

Multiplayer

• #room-1
• #room-2

Now that New Horizons is three years old, it makes sense to combine these channels into one. We'll also be combining New Leaf and Old School into a single General AC channel. Finally, we're expanding from a single #general to a few more non-AC channels for those of you who would like to chat about things in a less open-ended space.

Going forward, we'll also try to utilize more of Discord's features by making use of events, our Announcement channel, and a new Rules channel. The new integration with the forum will also help us utilize roles and other features more often.

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Free Bells!​

Your free Bell Tree Direct bells are back! Redeem them before they expire next week.


Click here to receive your 60 Bells!

And that concludes the Direct! As you can see, we have a long list of changes to make, so we figured it would be easier to announce them first. We'll go through each of these changes over the coming weeks, so expect things to look slightly different over that time. We hope to see you at our two upcoming events! Thanks for reading!

 

[Roxxy]

I’m not laughing….but I am.. “always been on the losing team” Well let’s hope this is a new year for you! It’s not quite the same but the entire time I was in undergrad and grad school (Masters) I really got frustrated with team projects. There was always at least 1 if not 2 on my team who just did not pull their own weight. And yes I am a perfectionist, but even if I wasn’t, it was obvious when someone just didn’t do the work. Many times I did the entire project, or redid the entire project so I could get that A grade, lol. So rest assured to anyone who is on my team I may not know what I am doing but I sure will give it 100%

I would love to be on your team! I am not a perfectionist but I try my best. I may not win prizes but I am a team player

 

[LateGamer]

I would love to be on your team! I am not a perfectionist but I try my best. I may not win prizes but I am a team player

Putting in the effort is what counts! And yeah that would be awesome if we end up on the same team. No worries, it’s the fun you have not the win! I know I am a perfectionist but I don’t hold others up to my personal, neurotic standards. Lol!

 

[FrostyAlmonds]

Ah @Roxxy I don't mean like, not participating at all kind of thing, I do want to try to participate where I can, and chat with the team too. It's more like, what sort of participation is involved within teams? For a camp related example, , as a team we all have to build a raft together and get assigned different steps (like someone goes and gets the logs, some one makes the sail out of leaves, someone assembles it, etc etc), we all have a role and work together. Or do we all just build our own little mini rafts without relying on each other and our participation points get tallied together. Hopefully that makes more sense? If it's the former I don't want to just completely drop the ball because I couldn't do my assigned tasks basically. I hope this year can be your year to win. Rooting for you (famous last words if we're on opposing teams haha).

Literally, @LateGamer this is exactly where my brain is too. I have also been there where I did like 95% of a group project myself in college because no one else was pulling their weight. High fives to being afraid of being that teammate (but I'm also sorry you had to go through that too, I always hated group projects because there was always at least SOMEONE who was just mooching a grade).

 

[-Blue-]

Yeah what Roxxy said. As long as you have fun and try to do your best that's all that matters.

It got a bit obvious to me when I saw the points being distributed who was active and not active with the teams. People in the leading team tended to stick on longer while those who saw the initial lull of points (due to inactive members) ended up throwing the towel in prematurely thus making it harder for that team to rise from their slump.

Just do your best and have fun and don't worry about the points.

 

[Roxxy]

Ah @Roxxy I don't mean like, not participating at all kind of thing, I do want to try to participate where I can, and chat with the team too. It's more like, what sort of participation is involved within teams? For a camp related example, , as a team we all have to build a raft together and get assigned different steps (like someone goes and gets the logs, some one makes the sail out of leaves, someone assembles it, etc etc), we all have a role and work together. Or do we all just build our own little mini rafts without relying on each other and our participation points get tallied together. Hopefully that makes more sense? If it's the former I don't want to just completely drop the ball because I couldn't do my assigned tasks basically. I hope this year can be your year to win. Rooting for you (famous last words if we're on opposing teams haha).

Literally, @LateGamer this is exactly where my brain is too. I have also been there where I did like 95% of a group project myself in college because no one else was pulling their weight. High fives to being afraid of being that teammate (but I'm also sorry you had to go through that too, I always hated group projects because there was always at least SOMEONE who was just mooching a grade).

As you are asking this it shows you want to be involved and would be an awesome team mate Every event is different so we won’t know until Friday. Normally there are solo events that count towards team points like art or room design on acnh? As long as you can contribute as much as you can then no one would ask any more.

I would love to win just once as a team event is my only chance of a special collectible my art skills are ….. . Please join in, it is honestly amazing fun, you meet great people and I am rooting for you and hope we are on the same team (even if we aren’t on same team I will give you a cheer )

 

[LateGamer]

Ah @Roxxy I don't mean like, not participating at all kind of thing, I do want to try to participate where I can, and chat with the team too. It's more like, what sort of participation is involved within teams? For a camp related example, , as a team we all have to build a raft together and get assigned different steps (like someone goes and gets the logs, some one makes the sail out of leaves, someone assembles it, etc etc), we all have a role and work together. Or do we all just build our own little mini rafts without relying on each other and our participation points get tallied together. Hopefully that makes more sense? If it's the former I don't want to just completely drop the ball because I couldn't do my assigned tasks basically. I hope this year can be your year to win. Rooting for you (famous last words if we're on opposing teams haha).

Literally, @LateGamer this is exactly where my brain is too. I have also been there where I did like 95% of a group project myself in college because no one else was pulling their weight. High fives to being afraid of being that teammate (but I'm also sorry you had to go through that too, I always hated group projects because there was always at least SOMEONE who was just mooching a grade).

Yes That’s exactly what I was trying to figure out about “team” activity. I opted in so I guess I’m going to find out.
”Mooching a grade” is the perfect way of putting it. I need to remember that haha. When I or others would moan about a team project where we all shared a grade, the professors response was often “Well you need to learn because that is how it will be in the work world” Uh not exactly. In the workplace if someone doesn’t do what they are supposed to there are often consequences to not pulling your weight. Oh well that’s all in the past. Now we just get to have fun and get to know one another. I am excited!

Post automatically merged: Jul 18, 2023

As you are asking this it shows you want to be involved and would be an awesome team mate Every event is different so we won’t know until Friday. Normally there are solo events that count towards team points like art or room design on acnh? As long as you can contribute as much as you can then no one would ask any more.

I would love to win just once as a team event is my only chance of a special collectible my art skills are ….. . Please join in, it is honestly amazing fun, you meet great people and I am rooting for you and hope we are on the same team (even if we aren’t on same team I will give you a cheer )

Art skills? ummmm I have zero, zilch, nada. Hehe. Well I’ll pull up the slack somewhere else.

 

[-Blue-]

Now where are my Melon Ballers at?

Or should I say Space Melon Ballers? Let's claim the moon as our base! Represent!

 

[Roxxy]

Now where are my Melon Ballers at?

Or should I say Space Melon Ballers? Let's claim the moon as our base! Represent!

Space crystal ballers will be there! who’s with me?

 

[Firesquids]

I think it goes without saying that I've opted in, but I'll say it anyway! I've opted in and I'm stoked for (obviously space) camp!

 

[Mick]

The event structure will be like last team events, all individual points get tallied up for the team, and the team score is what matters. Your team will be fine if you don't complete all tasks. Even if your team doesn't end up being the winner of the event (the majority of teams won't be!), everyone will still go home with pretty collectibles and good memories. @FrostyAlmonds @LateGamer

To anyone who is worried they might not be able to turn camp TBT into a full-time job: you will not be alone. Each team will have plenty of less active or even inactive members, and that is ok! All attempts at participation are valid! If anyone blames you for not spending all your free time on our silly forum event, I promise to give them very angry looks.

What I'm saying is, if you're active enough on the forums to be reading this then you might as well opt in, it's gonna be fun!

 

[Mairmalade]

Wait, you don’t want farm camp? What am supposed to do with all these ducks then? There goes camp this year!

Don't worry, they're ready for anything.

 

[Chris]

If anyone blames you for not spending all your free time on our silly forum event, I promise to give them very angry looks.

Can confirm that this is an accurate representation of a pissed off Mick. Right down to the fuchsia eyebrows.

Don't worry, they're ready for anything.

View attachment 499060

I can't believe he ate our goldfish.

 

[moonbyu]

i'm kinda hesitant to join since i've never participated in camp bell tree before and i might not know what to do... but i'll bite! i have too much free time anyways

 

[Venn]

How did I miss the announcement on Sunday?
Anyways, so excited to opt in!

 

[Chris]

i'm kinda hesitant to join since i've never participated in camp bell tree before and i might not know what to do... but i'll bite! i have too much free time anyways

We've only ever hosted one Camp event before, in 2021, so many people will be in the same boat! I'm sure anyone who participated in 2021 can tell you it isn't as intimidating as it sounds.

 

[-Blue-]

We've only ever hosted one Camp event before, in 2021, so many people will be in the same boat! I'm sure anyone who participated in 2021 can tell you it isn't as intimidating as it sounds.

Unless you're in Thunder's cabin. Then you get no indoor plumbing and have to use pinecones as tp. Or I guess since this might be space themed you gotta use moon rocks.

 

[Chris]

Unless you're in Thunder's cabin. Then you get no indoor plumbing and have to use pinecones as tp. Or I guess since this might be space themed you gotta use moon rocks.

Rest assured that Thunder has had his rights to allocate camper defecation and urination receptacles revoked this year.

 

[Xara]

Unless you're in Thunder's cabin. Then you get no indoor plumbing and have to use pinecones as tp.

don’t remind me of that we got to use leaves as tp sometimes…. as a treat

 

[.: Meri :.]

Rest assured that Thunder has had his rights to allocate camper defecation and urination receptacles revoked this year.

Thank goodness I won't have to sneak into other cabins just to use their washrooms this year

 

[FrostyAlmonds]

Ahh, thank you so much @Roxxy @-Blue- @Mick

I personally don't care about winning myself, just that I didn't want to be a filthy casual if people were in it to win. It sounds like it's definitely not that and is much more just fun camaraderie. Opted in and hoping for a fun camp experience with everyone/the team.

@LateGamer Let's do our best.