What’s your current opinion on this site?

[-Apples-]

On the topic of having more staff/rotating staff, there should also be times where the inactive staff members can have fun with the events, giving them another chance to win awards. I still liked LadyDestani’s Creature Feature entry back in 2023, even though that wasn’t eligible for event currency or prizes.

 

[sleepey]

On the topic of active & involved staff—I think it is to the detriment of any AC forum to not have a role (or committee) responsible for engaging active AC players (especially the newer members) and their needs, especially during the “off season” between games. It might be assumed that the active players/long-time members + independent shop/giveaway services will take care of them on their own. In reality, new members might be discouraged from returning when folks don’t respond in time to requests for trades and such. TBT events are great and have encouraged my activity as a habitual AC forum user, but they might not be as accessible for people who aren’t used to forum culture. Using what the forum is about—Animal Crossing, the video game—at even a minimally coordinated level could make a huge difference for this website’s longevity and legacy.

 

[Mick]

Just dropping by to note that we are actively watching this thread and while we can't instantly provide formal answers and promises on changes and features, we will definitely be providing a response to the feedback at some point™ (because there is a lot to reply to...).

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There are many things I'd put here in response to the things in this thread, but it's already 1AM and I also don't want to accidentally falsely get people's hopes up for certain changes to things that were mentioned.

So, personal opinion on the site: I'm glad TBT is there. There are a lot of sites nowadays that are overrun with hate and hostility, and I'm glad that TBT has consistently been a relatively safe space, at least as best as we could manage. Of course hindsight has proven that some things could have been better, it's not that I'm going to pat me or anyone on the back for creating the best place ever, because it's not. But I'm glad it exists.

Spoiler: rant

One thing that has bothered me for a long while is how divided the world is becoming. People are expected to somehow pick a side on complex topics without ever understanding them fully, and by choosing they will immediately alienate themselves from the rest.

I have personally always been a strong advocate of letting people share their opinions and world views openly (within reason, without it being overly offensive, and presented unagressively) - because that provides opportunities to learn how others interpret their world. Not necessarily because I think some opinions are superior and others need to change, but because I believe it helps form a deeper understanding of the people around us which in turn prevents us from growing too distant and hateful towards each other. But that only works when the discussion is constructive and free of aggression, and as I'm seeing things, this is increasingly rare. I'm just sad to see that this is also affecting TBT.

I can of course see that some views are inherently harmful, and am in no way not advocating for a no-rules free-speech let's-go system. I just see discussions everywhere have become increasingly 'us versus them' and simply miss the days when they were not. A ban on topics like religion and politics is something I would gladly support, because while I cannot even begin to pretend that I (or we as a staff team) know everything that is right and/or wrong, I can at least make an educated guess as to when a topic becomes too complicated for an animal crossing forum to moderate.

On a lighter note, I've made more friends on this forum than I've made through any other site or game. I think that's awesome. I think TBT is at the very least an okay place, which means a lot these days, so I'm glad it exists.

Final thought, anyone submitting AI art to the events belongs in a very deep hole with like a lot of snakes in it.

 

[Bowie]

I haven't been nearly as active here as I used to be by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd like to say that back when I first joined, I do not believe a thread like this would've been received very well – that is, I think it would've been locked by now, so it's great that conversations like this can even happen. I won't pretend I lurk enough nowadays to comment on the way it is run or what the site's biggest problems are, but I would like to echo some points made by others in this thread and give my own stance.

The AI discussion is something that affects literally every site you will ever go on these days – I think it's unrealistic to imagine a full ban, as much as I concur regarding how awful it is and how negatively it impacts real creatives. Nintendo themselves have expressed mixed views on AI – is it out of the question we won't be seeing AI in Animal Crossing content in the future? What do we do then? It's a tricky subject no matter what corner of the Internet you've crawled here from, and I might be mistaken, but I highly doubt the staff are equipped to deal with that, no matter how many there are. This isn't a monetised platform with paid staff, it's just a forum with enthuastic volunteers, basically. I doubt the donations go beyond server expenses. That said, I'm all for any effort that could go towards minimising/discouraging the amount of AI content here. Keep that conversation going, please!

Contact the Staff is a terrifying concept. The only time I ever used it was when I was being harassed by someone here (I forget the context) eons ago and even that made me feel like I was the problem. Of course, some issues are more sensitive than others and require that, but I'd be surprised if most feedback that goes in there would be met with a 'we'll take that into consideration' that likely doesn't go anywhere unless one of the site's volunteers (I prefer that word to mod/admin) can muster up the courage to push it. You might be good at locking controversial threads, but again, how equipped are you to enforce things and enact change? How much training are you provided for those situations? I could go on. I think this applies to any issue people have, honestly. Make it more of a public thing (like this thread, which maybe could be pinned? That could be a decent solution, maybe?) and it increases the pressure to actually make these things into a reality.

Overall, I have a fondness for this site that keeps me visiting, even if it's just to lurk and get a tad nostalgic. In many ways, I'm surprised it's lasted this long at all, but that's obviously down to the devoted community and indeed those who run it. I made so many friends here back in the day (none of which I keep in touch with, sadly), and I'm hopeful it'll still be around in years to come!

Also, I don't care what your religion is or what your politic beliefs are – protect the LGBT+ community. There are young and old members here, and it's the staff's (and our own) responsibility to ensure the conversations we have here actively support and uplift those people. If your views go against that, I sincerely don't believe you should be allowed here.

 

[-Apples-]

I haven't been nearly as active here as I used to be by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd like to say that back when I first joined, I do not believe a thread like this would've been received very well – that is, I think it would've been locked by now, so it's great that conversations like this can even happen. I won't pretend I lurk enough nowadays to comment on the way it is run or what the site's biggest problems are, but I would like to echo some points made by others in this thread and give my own stance.

I’m so glad that the community had calmed down enough to where we can have threads like this today. Had I made this thread back in 2015, it would’ve been another thread with toxic arguments and trolling in a time TBT was full of it, and it wouldn’t even be about politics. It would be about other members (specific members too) and then-current Animal Crossing controversies (such as villager tiers, duping, and town vandals). I wasn’t exempt from this either, given that I complained about a specific member too.

Speaking of which, had I made this thread (or even a blog entry since the Blog Tree existed at the time) back then, my opinion towards this site would be very, very low, as I don’t think this site would’ve been any better than GameFAQs. Now it’s a more positive one. Everyone has grown up, newer members are nicer, and the Rules and Guidelines has improved. Granted, we still have some problems, as many of us discussed in this thread, but we can discuss them more civilly now than we could’ve discussed them in 2015.

 

[Foreverfox]

I’ve noticed this thread and have wanted to comment on it for a couple of days, but didn’t really know what to say yet. I love this place so much, and yeah, it has its moments of difficulty, but it’s because we’re all humans, just floating along on this ball in space together.

I don’t even know if anyone has noticed that I haven’t been participating in events much at all lately. I think the biggest thing is like to see worked on is categories for event entries. Specifically digital and traditional. For the one event where you had to use Lego, only one entry was put through to staff favorite that was made of actual Lego, the rest were from that software. That’s just one instance where a digital and traditional categorization would have been great. Obviously lineart is another one.

I know others share my feeling that constantly being able to guess who is going to win events is disheartening. To that point though, I am not by any means saying people who win often shouldn’t win. People who win, do so because their entries are impeccable and amazing. That should not be taken from them. perhaps making a consistent “honorable mention” section? I know we’ve done that in the past and it’s nice! It’s like, a step above participation, but a step below entirely winning staff fave.

As far as collectibles go, yes the economy was bad when you had to overpay for everything, but now you can’t even sell anything because it’s so bad. I honestly think that almost all (save for trophies, animated and the like) collectibles should be available in the shop at set prices similar to their current fair market value and you can just buy them whenever. You would still be able to date trade this way too, and you could enable a sell back for say 25-30% of the value. That eliminates the problem of needing to sell things and not being able to get any buyers. But also deters abuse by not getting the full amount back.

I look forward to continuing to see this community grow

 

[CoolJhon]

It’s quite peak. Everyone’s nice and the events are cool. I also like how this is more of an Animal Crossing themed forum than THE Animal Crossing forum. Everything is discussed here not just AC

 

[Gabby]

This place is pretty cool

 

[-Raven-]

The normal shop being so empty is weird. I remember when I first joined and looked I felt like it… well it felt like a placeholder. It really does still. Seeing stuff from events that passed before and seeing the fruit and houses unavailable or limited stock or whatever- don’t exactly remember what it’s like but it felt like those just weren’t cleared from the rotation because nobody did it yet lol. Honestly still don’t get what’s up with the houses staying there, if it’s for some janky technical reason or they actually rotate in stock and I never see it. I’m just under the assumption stuff from the last few events is either for a jank technical reason or to make things look more stocked than they are (would be weird because some of the actual useful / buyable stuff is beyond them on the last page).

I was going to say that compared to when I was really active there are definitely some more open complaints here and if people are actively trying to voice that it says something but maybe that’s just talking above my pay grade ‘coz other people saw how it was worse before I was even here. Lol idk yall are talking about it being night there and I just had an all nighter, been up thirty hours straight.

One time I did have a negative / transphobic interaction here but I just didn’t report it then because it was years ago and I wasn’t confident enough in myself so I blew it off, at this point I don’t even remember who it was lol but it wasn’t anyone I see online. I am not trying to make that a public issue BUT seeing how the world has progressed I regret not report that. Probably still in my conversations but it was years ago now. My actual point, I can’t imagine it happens here a lot so if other people had similar experiences with people making them uncomfortable it sucks hearing they had nothing done about it and no response and I can empathise. Not that I blame the staff for my interaction because I just didn’t report it which is the other half but eh my apathy eh. I’ve gone long stretches wayy too long without reaching out or replying to some people here but this isn’f about me I just acknowledge I’m another flawed guy here.

Anecdotally I’m on one Discord server which is outwardly progressive, but inwardly they have a “zero-tolerance policy”, yet… there was someone pushing bigoted arguments in their vent channel for weeks. They acted very polite. They had a pretty sad background and I could empathise with that part. I know at least four people on that server who have used dogwhistles or said things as blatant as the “marraige is between a man and a woman only” or “straight relationships in kids’ shows are okay but they’re pushing lgbt ones” and they aren’t banned lol, it’s bizarre to me because the mods talk in the open about progressive stuff and multiple of them are queer. On the outside and even posting there fairly often… like this stuff hasn’t overtaken that server but it’s extremely disappointing to know the times it was not reprimanded, it’s compliance, it’s accepting it being in that space if there’s no real stance. TBT staff don’t be like that. To be frank this site has a very progressive community (even in my inactivity that’s very obvious) and it’s obvious a lot of “polite” points and semantics that could just as easily be seen as dogwhistles are just going to make people here uncomfortable and a lot of us just want to get away from those things or have a very harsh stance against them (myself included).

 

[-Apples-]

Do you know what else I would like? User-hosted events. Although events held by users aren’t unheard of on TBT, they were all unofficial. I would like to see a time where users can host official events while the staff, who were ineligible to participate in the past, can participate. Now this may have never happened before, but the closest we got to this was for the Return of the Haunted Carnival, where the Wix Well Tent was set up by the prize pack winners.

I do suggest that if this idea is considered, this should come with limits. For example, these events can only be mini-events at best. Stuff like the TBT Fair, Camp TBT, and the holiday events should be left to the staff.

 

[You got mail!]

Since we're giving suggestions here, I thought I'd give one myself!

I don’t know how this would work here so I'm just throwing this out there as a possibility but I think it’ll be pretty cool to have collectibles you can obtain via in-game accomplishments in Animal Crossing games. You’d send proof of what you did and you get a collectible corresponding to your accomplishment! There was this very old forum I was in called Goofans and you could get collectibles from various accomplishments made in a puzzle game called World of Goo.

Behold!! The existence of forum collectibles outside The Bell Tree!

 

[Dunquixote]

Do you know what else I would like? User-hosted events. Although events held by users aren’t unheard of on TBT, they were all unofficial. I would like to see a time where users can host official events while the staff, who were ineligible to participate in the past, can participate. Now this may have never happened before, but the closest we got to this was for the Return of the Haunted Carnival, where the Wix Well Tent was set up by the prize pack winners.

I do suggest that if this idea is considered, this should come with limits. For example, these events can only be mini-events at best. Stuff like the TBT Fair, Camp TBT, and the holiday events should be left to the staff.

I like that idea. That would be a lot of work for one person or a group though. Not to mention there are some problems with this idea. There would still probably be problems with bias with judges.

 

[Halloqueen]

People have covered a lot of important points, but I kind of just want to jump in and say that this is probably the worst possible time to consider a ban on political discussion. With the events going on in the U.S. and the worldwide reverberations emanating from it, it would be like disbanding a fire department while kids are pouring gasoline and playing with matches. For example, a while back, someone mentioned their distress about the ongoing Medicaid defunding situation, while another mentioned that they would be affected by that. We have multiple long-distance international couples among our members whose lives are and/or will be affected by current politics. There's a lot of stuff going on and people are probably going to be stressed out and want to discuss such things, if even just to vent.

Political discussions can get out of hand, but I feel it's better to handle those issues as they arise rather than blanket ban political topics just because it can get uncomfortable. I also feel that part of the reason that the world is in the situation that it is currently in is because too many people are too disengaged from politics, not paying enough attention or are being misinformed by bad actors, which isn't even entirely their fault since people have to work to live and might not want to have to deal with the news because they're already overwhelmed.

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As for my personal opinion of the forums, as I tend to just stick to myself, it's much the same as it's ever been for me. I have fun participating in the events throughout the year, post in topics that interest me, passively work on building cool collectible lineups, occasionally buy stuff from the shops whenever I actively find myself playing ACNH (not that common these days, admittedly). I play Among Us with Dunquixote's unofficial group on the weekends and have a good time, but that's a relatively recent development in my nearly 10-year tenure. I've heard about the whole situation with the development of cliques and have heard of their effects a few times (like the event voting fiasco in the past) but I don't know who's in said cliques, since again, I keep to myself. I was unaware of, and disappointed to learn recently, about incidents of transphobia, homophobia, racism, etc. Others have already covered those topics and offered suggestions which I agree with.

The forums have generally been a nice refuge for me for coming up on a decade now and they remain as such thus far.

I don't know how we get out of this collectible rut with no one really buying and selling collectibles in the TBT Marketplace most of the time anymore, short of increasing the TBT earned per posts, which is something I've suggested in the past as well. Until the next Animal Crossing game comes out and hopefully generates a forum population boom that can hopefully be sustained longer than New Horizons, I think we just need more TBT in circulation. We've had discussions in the past about how it isn't necessarily fair to try to get the rich users to spend their hoards to get more redistribution, so I feel like the 10 or 11 TBT per post cap is too low. It can always be lowered again if the population picks back up and is no longer necessary.

Also, please don't bring back limited restocks. It unintentionally but unfairly favors those with fast Internet connections and is generally just kind of a bummer.

 

[CoolJhon]

Is a ban on that happening? When was it being considered

 

[Halloqueen]

Is a ban on that happening? When was it being considered

A few comments suggested that it was being discussed behind the scenes among the Staff. Thus why I wanted to give my two cents on the matter.

 

[-Blue-]

I see a lot mentioning the issues about the collectibles. Since I'm fairly new to events and collectibles, I never really followed it all extensively. It also doesn't interest me as much as it does a lot of the members here. I think they're cute, but I'm not actively trying to get them and having fomo. I do events and maybe pick a few as a memento, but most times I gift the event collectibles to others since I know they like them and would mean more to them than me just keeping them.

Since I'm actively not on the collectible trade section I don't notice trends and how difficult it is to sell or find them. But if it's a huge issue what if different collectibles were released during specific seasons and holidays? Like in autumn things like the pumpkin pie, cupcake, ghost kitty/crow plush could return for a reasonable amount of bells. That way it's an incentive for members to return during specific times and whatnot.

 

[Dunquixote]

I see a lot mentioning the issues about the collectibles. Since I'm fairly new to events and collectibles, I never really followed it all extensively. It also doesn't interest me as much as it does a lot of the members here. I think they're cute, but I'm not actively trying to get them and having fomo. I do events and maybe pick a few as a memento, but most times I gift the event collectibles to others since I know they like them and would mean more to them than me just keeping them.

Since I'm actively not on the collectible trade section I don't notice trends and how difficult it is to sell or find them. But if it's a huge issue what if different collectibles were released during specific seasons and holidays? Like in autumn things like the pumpkin pie, cupcake, ghost kitty/crow plush could return for a reasonable amount of bells. That way it's an incentive for members to return during specific times and whatnot.

I am the same way; I am a little interested in collectibles but am more of a casual collector since I’m still pretty clueless on the values and not as invested as some users. A lot of things has kept me from participating in every events - either I was on a hiatus, wasn’t still feeling good, or I was discouraged about participating because of getting my hopes up for a staff favorite or because lack of art skill. I missed a ton of collectibles that I would’ve loved that are way out of reach because of how expensive they are.

I really like your suggestion and would like this (particularly for the kitty plushies). Earning thousands of tbt is tough for me so I feel like by making some event earned collectibles purchaseable for a limited time during certain seasons with tbt, it’d still have a little bit of that sense of accomplishment and value from working hard to get it, though not nearly as much as it would by getting it in an event. Still it might be nice to have this option; also would be nice in the event I can’t also participate or invest all my time into it.

I do value collectibles that I earn through events more than ones I buy from the shop since I put a lot of time and effort into my entries and the collectible is kinda like proof to me of that.

 

[azurill]

But if it's a huge issue what if different collectibles were released during specific seasons and holidays? Like in autumn things like the pumpkin pie, cupcake, ghost kitty/crow plush could return for a reasonable amount of bells.

I think that’s a great idea.

A lot of things has kept me from participating in every events - either I was on a hiatus, wasn’t still feeling good, or I was discouraged about participating because of getting my hopes up for a staff favorite or because lack of art skill. I missed a ton of collectibles that I would’ve loved that are way out of reach because of how expensive they are.

Yea I know how you feel. I still feel bad and regret that I didn’t participate in the space camp event especially since I love all the space collectibles. I just wasn’t in the right place and exhausted so it wouldn’t have been fun . My lack of art skills also makes me hesitant to enter some of the art events.

 

[-Lumi-]

One of my opinions on this site is that I think it's silly that animated avatars cost 900 bells!! What a weird choice.