Good evening everyone and welcome to our latest TBT Direct, where we will be making a few announcements regarding the site. One of our most exciting announcements tonight is about a brand new TBT Week coming up! Before we get to that, though, let's talk about staff apps.
Staff Applications Open
Staff applications are opening for the first time since 2016. We hope to increase the size of our team in preparation for the upcoming release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. We're not sure how many staff members will be added during this round yet, especially because we're in a quieter time on the forum, but this is a preliminary thing for the coming influx of users. We'll likely be opening applications again several months after the game has been out and the forums have been repopulated.
We are currently interested in adding more moderators than project staff, but applications are open for both. If you've been recently less active compared to the past, we'll be more understanding this year since a new Animal Crossing game hasn't come out for a while. However, if you're selected, you'll have more to do and we expect that you'll be active again. Please be aware that you must be at least 18 years of age to be considered. For more information and to apply for a position, click the link below:
TBT Fair: Maybe December 2019
Our biggest and most anticipated event is The Bell Tree Fair and, while we won't be hosting it this summer, we're considering to start it this December in celebration of TBT's 15th birthday. The first TBT Fairs were actually held in the winter for TBT's birthday, so this would be a continuation of that tradition. Fifteen years is also a special milestone, so it's a fitting change for the year!
However, like I mentioned in the previous TBT Directs, we've shifted focus from big events to new game preparation. The community and staff are also a bit less active at the moment. For these reasons, we can't promise a TBT Fair this year, but we'll let you know as the date gets closer.
Old School Animal Crossing Week
Last year we announced TBT Weeks as a new way to have smaller events on and off throughout the year. We've had four different week types so far and they've been a much bigger hit than expected! They've also been a bit bigger in size than the originally planned "mini" events, but that's not a bad thing!
One of the TBT Weeks that was teased back then was called Old School Animal Crossing Week and starting in six days, on August 21st, we'll finally be hosting it for the very first time. This will also be a special first edition of the event with more to do and parts of it will last for about two weeks, instead of the usual one week! As you can probably tell by the name, this TBT Week will be centered around the older Animal Crossing games that aren't played as much these days. You'll have to come back on Wednesday to see the events we have planned for it, but here's a sneak peak!
This permanent Red Turnip collectible could be yours!
Rules Update
There are also a couple additions to the rules that we'd like to point out.
Respecting Others 1.a.:
The first one explicitly states that interfering with someone else's trading thread isn't allowed. For example, users shouldn't publicly try to police the prices of items being sold. Giving someone advice about buying and selling is perfectly fine through PMs, but the trading thread should only be used by people who are interested in making the trade.
Original said:
New said:
Auctions 3.c.:
The next rule relates to the ending time of auctions. There was an incident a few months ago where an auction turned into a bidding war at the end of the auction. Multiple people were placing bids at the very end of the auction and the timestamp of the final post showed as the same minute of the auction's ending time. This was considered the winner, but some people thought it was unfair because it was technically posted seconds after the auction was supposed to end.
Going forward, the standard will be that the auction's ending time is exclusive. In other words, if it's supposed to end at 6:00, the timestamp of the posted bid must display 5:59 or before. Post timestamps on the forum do not show seconds, so this is the best way to handle this situation if it happens again. Also remember that submitting a post can take a second or two, so be careful if you're planning to bid at the very end of an auction.
Original said:
New said:
Bell Giveaway!
The TBT Direct bell giveaway is back! We're giving out 50 bells to the first 100 members who redeem them!
We hope you enjoyed this TBT Direct. Be sure to check back in on the forum next week for our very first Old School Animal Crossing Week! While planning this TBT Week, we've realized that it's practically turning into the size of a standard TBT summer event, so you won't want to miss it!
