A Message to those who play Animal Crossing

While the New Horizons era is about over, a new Animal Crossing game should come out within a few years. As you may do it now, there is something that you should do when the new Animal Crossing game comes out.

You should join the Bell Tree Forums, the largest Animal Crossing fansite. The link to the forum is here.

Bell Tree Forums, also known as TBT, is one of the many Animal Crossing fansites, and is the most notable one. It started in 2004, back when the GameCube Version of Animal Crossing was the only Animal Crossing game, but it started to get much more active in 2013 when Animal Crossing: New Leaf came out. The community on the Bell Tree Forums today was shaped by the class of 2013.

I may not be a staff member, nor have I ever been a staff member before, but as a member who’s been on for over 10 years and made over 25,000 posts, I have plenty of advice to give any newcomers and returning users. Right now, it’s in one of its down phases (where the site is quiet), but when a new Animal Crossing game just came out, activity spikes. So when Animal Crossing 6 comes out, Bell Tree Forums is the place to go to.

Why You Should Join The Bell Tree Forums:

While there are other Animal Crossing fansites out there, The Bell Tree Forums is rather unique. Being older than Twitter, YouTube, Bing, Reddit, Tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram, and still active opposed to many traditional forums, there are a couple reasons why you should go to Bell Tree Forums rather than sites like GameFAQs and ResetEra, or places like Reddit and Tumblr.

Reason #1 – It is safer to play Animal Crossing online over there:

You can play Animal Crossing online with other people on almost any Animal Crossing fansite or gaming community, but one thing Bell Tree has is the Wi-Fi rating system. If you play online with another person, you can use the Wi-Fi rating system to judge by their performance. If you had a positive experience with the person, you can give them a positive rating. But if you have a negative experience, such as scamming the buyer, scamming the seller, vandalizing the host’s town, or abuse towards visitors, you can give them a negative rating. If one had too many negative ratings, they wouldn’t be trustworthy, and thus, people wouldn’t buy from them.

The staff also takes Wi-Fi ratings seriously. Any act of abuse of the ratings, such as revenge ratings, creating multiple accounts to boost one’s rating or sink another person’s rating, or even giving ratings to those who haven’t even done a trade, they will remove the illegitimate ratings, and the user who gave a false rating will get a warning or suspension.

For instance, let’s say that Cartman and Kyle were playing Animal Crossing and used Bell Tree Forums. If Cartman gave Kyle a negative rating, here’s when his rating is legitimate:

Kyle sold a villager to Cartman that he [Kyle] didn’t have on his island.
Kyle bought a whole bunch of DIYs from Cartman, but he didn’t pay him.
Kyle has been abusing villager chat to insult Cartman.
Cartman was hosting an island tour, but Kyle kept disobeying the rules.

And here’s when Cartman’s rating is illegitimate:

Kyle gave Cartman a negative rating for scamming him, but Cartman gave Kyle a negative rating in retaliation.
Cartman gave Kyle a negative rating despite never playing Animal Crossing with him or trading Bell Tree collectibles.
Cartman gave Kyle a negative rating for being too strict, even though Kyle’s rules were reasonable.
Cartman gave Kyle a negative rating for something else he did on the forums that have nothing to do with trading or playing online.

If you received an illegitimate rating or have given an accidental negative rating, you can report that on the Contact the Staff board. All threads created by regular members are private and are only shared between the user and the staff members.

Finally, here’s one more thing. When you give Wi-Fi ratings to other members of the forum, you can say that you were the host, visitor, or trader.

If you were the one who hosted visitors to your town or island, you were the host of the trade.
If you visited other islands, you were the visitor of the trade.
If you traded collectibles on the TBT Marketplace (which is for Bell Tree items only), as the buyer or seller, you were the trader of the trade.

Reason #2 – The site is more organized on Animal Crossing trades:

While some sites have a trading board for all Animal Crossing trades, the Bell Tree Forums has multiple boards. Right now, with Animal Crossing: New Horizons as the most recent game, these are the forums of the New Horizons category:

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – this is a general discussion for the game Animal Crossing: New Horizons. You can talk about the gameplay, the characters, or other things. Some threads include a screenshot-sharing thread, a FAQ thread, a thread for sharing your island map, and a thread on your daily accomplishments.
The Airport – one of the three Wi-Fi boards, this is for all online plays that do not involve trading. They include island tours, holding items as one resets their island, turnip prices, and special visitors.
Nook’s Cranny – this is where you actually trade in-game items. Whether you’re trading in-game Bells, furniture, clothes, DIYs, fossils, or art, you can go here. They even have a checklist of what currency you would trade with, whether it be in-game Bells, forum Bells (also known as TBT Bells), Nook Miles Tickets, or other things, so people would know what to spend before visiting the thread.
New Neighbor Network – this is where you trade villagers online. If someone is moving out their villager, visitors can go to the island the villager is moving out, and the buyer can invite the villager to their island.

In the New Leaf boards, they had the Train Station (which was like the Airport), the Re-Tail (which was like Nook’s Cranny), and the Villager Trading Place (which was like the New Neighbor Network). Even City Folk had their boards back when people could play Animal Crossing: City Folk online.

And one more thing. The TBT Marketplace is not for in-game trades or art commissions. If you’re looking for in-game Animal Crossing items or selling in-game Animal Crossing items, that goes on the Nook’s Cranny board. The TBT Marketplace is strictly for Bell Tree collectibles, as well as Pokémon trades in case people are looking for or selling Pokémon. Meanwhile, the Museum Shop is where you can pay other members to do art for you or where you can do art for other members.

Reason #3 – The site has forum currency:

The forum tries to be as immersive to Animal Crossing as possible. One feature is that you can earn Bells. Each time you make a post, you can earn between 1 to 10 Bells, depending on how long your posts are. Posts made in general Animal Crossing discussion boards (such as Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and General AC Discussion) will pay a lot more Bells for less text. But posts on the Bell Tree HQ (site-related stuff), Nintendo Treehouse (Nintendo-related stuff), or Brewster’s Café (off-topic board) don’t pay as much for each text. And if you’re on a trading board, the Basement (where forum games are), the Introduction board, or any event-exclusive boards (like the Bell Tree Fair boards), your posts don’t earn any Bells. You get paid for meaningful discussion.

Posting isn’t the only way you can earn Bells. You can also earn them from TBT Bell bonuses, free TBT Bell links hosted by the site staff (limited time only), or receiving Bells from another member. The last of the three can be obtained by trading in-game items, art, or collectibles, with collectibles generating the most profit.

In years past, there used to be many other ways to earn Bells, like Welcome Bells (where you earn Bells from account creation), interest (where you can collect interest from the ABD feature), poll creation, and birthdays. However, these systems have been abused for personal gain, so they have been nixed altogether.

The alternative forum currency is also why trades are smoother on Bell Tree than on other sites. For places like GameFAQs, if you want some items or villagers, you better have a lot of Bells before you can buy your items. But on Bell Tree Forums, you don’t have to trade in-game Bells to buy an item. You can use TBT Bells for that too,

Reason #4 – The site has events:

This is the best part of the forum. Every year, the site staff host events on the forum. Some events are rare or reoccuring every once in a while, but others occur every year. They aren’t to be taken for granted, but they do come often. Some events include:

Egg Hunt – each time around Easter (yes, they call it Easter, not Bunny Day), they hide egg graphics around the forum, where if you click on an egg graphic hidden in a post, you can earn eggs (which is an alternative forum currency). Eggs can be spent on egg collectibles. But in case if you’re looking for the egg graphics, the staff provide clues, but the way they’re written are challenging, as any additional hints would make it easier. But hints are not to be shared publicly except for community clues (which are harder than solo clues). There’s been at least one Egg Hunt every year since 2013 (before New Leaf came out in western markets). Even 2020 had an Egg Hunt, despite not occurring in Easter. You won’t be able to redeem the same egg twice, nor could you redeem eggs once the Egg Hunt ends.
- If you want to know how clues work, here’s an example: Let’s say there is a thread discussing the game Donkey Kong 64. One of the posts may have an egg graphic. On the official Egg Hunt thread, the clue relating to the egg would be “Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple is for your collection quest, but Orange is dangerous.” When the hunt is over, they will post the answers and how the clues make sense, but you won’t be able to redeem the eggs. The egg relating to the clue about Donkey Kong 64 would provide some explanation, where the five colors are the same colors as the bananas the Kongs can collect, while oranges are one of the weapons in the game (which are explosives). They would also post the name of the first user to find the egg and how many users found the egg.
- In earlier years, the rules used to be a lot stricter. You were not allowed to share any hints for any of the eggs, not publicly on board or even in private with other members. But then they started to lighten up on the rules when they had solo clues and community clues, where hints related to community clues can be shared on board, while hints to solo clues can only be shared privately.
Flower Week – Somewhere in the Spring, the staff would host an event where you can collect flower collectibles and publicly display them in your sidebar. Hybridization on the forum works the same as it does in the games, where two flowers of a certain kind would yield other flowers. Non-hybrid flowers can be purchased from the Bell Tree Shop any time, but hybrid flowers can only be obtained by growing them during these weeks or from other members.
Halloween – The site even has events around Halloween time. But Halloween-related events are usually different. They have different stories and contain different activities. Past Halloween events included The Bell Tree Spooktacular (2015), the Woods Expedition (2016, 2017, 2019), TBT’s Haunted Home Para*DIE* (2021), and the Haunted Carnival (2023, 2024).
Christmas – There’s also an event for Christmas-themed activities. Like Halloween, Christmas-themed events are different every year. But one of the most reoccurring events is the Seasons of Gifting, where you can spend on present collectibles and gift other members. Those who sent more gifts would earn exclusive titles, and once all days of gifting are over, the new collectibles will be revealed.

One of the best events on the forum is the Bell Tree Fair. While earlier TBT Fairs took place in December, it has become a late summer event starting 2016. During the fair, there are contests (where you can submit an entry that would appear in voting, where people with the most votes earn trophies) and events (which are the other activities where staff favorite winners would earn an animated collectible). Some events part of the Event Pavillion include, but not limited to:

Count Inside the Bottle – you have to guess how many objects there are in the bottle. The closest guesser of each round earns an animated collectible.
Line-Art Coloring – once called the Bucket of Paint event, you will see a black and white picture drawn by one of the staff members, and your job is to fill the whole picture with colors. You could also use picture effects to make it more magical, like glowing lights. There’s many creative spins you can use. The pictures that the staff like most will be declared as staff favorites.
Photo Challenge – you will be asked to take a screenshot in the Animal Crossing games related to the prompt, and then you can describe what’s going on. Say like the prompt is to catch a fish. You can catch a fish and caption the picture. Creative ways to spin it off is like cooking the fish and placing them on the ground (which is the same thing as catching dead fish), making fish patterns and displaying them on ground, or catching fish with a group of friends. These kinds of pictures would earn staff favorites.
Cooking/Baking – you can even make art using food. If you bake something in real life, you can turn the food into art. For example, you can try to make a statue of Isabelle using only cake and frosting.
Scavenger Hunt – the staff will prompt users to take pictures of a real life object and post a picture of it. Your username card, which you can make up, must be along with your submission.
House of Mirrors – this event is about guessing the Nintendo character behind distorted images that obscure them enough to where you can’t guess easily, but you can still guess the character.

As for the contests, they include an art drawing contest, an interior design contest (which you play Animal Crossing to do), a writing contest, and more. These activities and events aren’t just found in TBT Fairs. They also appear in Halloween events, Christmas events, Camp Bell Tree events, and more.

The Bell Tree Fair has a lot of new collectibles you can buy using tickets (which you earn from participating in the activities). But you can also get real life prizes, which are made by the staff and can be sent to your home in real life.

To learn more about how to participate in these events, you should join the Bell Tree and read the guidelines the staff make.

Reason #5 – There is an Island Journal forum:

If you want to document your progress, like post what you did each day on your island, post any records you have, or make up stories about your island, you can use the Island Journals forum, which is a subforum of the General AC Discussion. A thread made by you is all about you and what you did. There’s many different threads telling the stories of their islands and how they came to be.

Originally, there was a feature called the Blog Tree, which you can use to share your progress you did in the Animal Crossing games, or talk about other things. But due to the lack of use, the Blog Tree has been shut down. But to compensate for that, the Island Journals forum was created.

Bell Tree Collectibles:

While most people who join the site are more about Animal Crossing and how to play, the regular members, both past and present, care more about the site’s features than other members did. Site events are one of them. But collectibles are another.

Here is what collectibles look like:

Yes, it’s a small image, but the size of the image is accurate to the forum. Collectibles are small images that appear under the user’s avatar (or on the mobile site, along with the user’s avatar). You can have as many collectibles you want in your inventory, but only 10 can be displayed on your profile at once. They can be based on items you get in the Animal Crossing games (like the fruit and flowers), in other games (like the Pokéballs), or are Bell Tree originals (like the Celeste Chick Plush).

Some collectibles, like basic fruits, flowers, and birthstones, can be purchases from the shop at any time of the year. Others, like eggs, glow wands, and plushies, can only be obtained through events or from other members. The purpose of collectibles is to decorate your profile that appears along with your posts. Some have interesting sidebar designs as well. You can have all of the same kind (like all apples or all roses), a varied collection (like 10 different eggs), symmetrical sidebars, color-oriented sidebars (where all collectibles from the same row are of the same type, and both collectibles from the same column have the same color), or a mixed sidebar (like how I usually decorate my sidebar).

Just letting you know, collectibles are sorted based on dates they have been purchased. The older they are, the later they appear in the sidebar. For instance, if any user purchased a collectible dated August 15th, 2023, and any other user (including the same user) purchased a collectible dated December 16th, 2019, the one purchased in 2019 will be somewhere on the right or below. Newest collectibles get the highest priority.

If there’s a collectible that you wanted, but it’s not one of these all-year collectibles, you can buy them from other members, either by visiting their selling threads or creating a buying thread in the TBT Marketplace. But there’s something you need to keep in mind. Many users, especially more experienced ones, take collectibles very seriously. Some care about sidebar design a lot, and some treasure certain collectibles more than others. Some of the most coveted collectibles include the 2016 glow wands, the Disco Ball Easter Egg, the Galaxy Easter Egg, the Black Feather, the White Feather, the Sweet Feather, the Fair Pinwheel, and the Weird Doll. These collectibles, they are so popular that nobody would want to sell them. Some may eventually sell them, but at very high TBT Bell prices. And there are some that are high in supply to where nobody would want to take them, no matter how low you would sell them. For as long as the site is more active, the TBT Marketplace will move more. But once it’s been a couple years since the last Animal Crossing game came out, it becames a tricky place.

And one more thing. Some collectibles cannot be traded on the forum. They include limited-edition ones that show your participation in a past event (like the Bell Tree Fair patches) and award collectibles (like trophies, team champion awards, and TBT Fair animated collectibles). Award collectibles can’t even be purchased from the shop. They can only be awarded by the staff. As for limited-edition ones, while you can purchase them on your own, they will be unavailable for purchase once the event is over. You can earn regular, tradable collectibles from the staff from raffles, but award collectibles can’t be earned from raffles.

Advice for New Users and Returning Users:

If you want to know how to use the forum, but don’t know how to use the forum, or if you’re unsure about how to get along with the rest of the rest of the community, I have a lot of helpful advice. And you need to take the advice seriously. While the community is overall more welcoming and friendly, there’s been a lot of drama in the past. It was especially bad during the New Leaf Era (2013-2015), and the drama of the past has given several members a bad impression of the community. To prevent these problems from happening again, there is some advice to follow.

Tip #1 – Read the Bell Tree Rules and Guidelines:

It’s important that you read the forum rules before you start posting when joining any forum, but the Bell Tree Forums has a large section that lists a lot of rules and examples of what’s allowed and what’s not allowed. Stuff forbidden include disrespect towards other members, posting inappropriate content, trading hacked items in Animal Crossing, low-quality posting, and abusing systems like TBT Bells and Wi-Fi ratings. It’s very detailed, helpful, and organized.

While all rules are to be taken seriously as you post, these tips of advice from me are among the most important one of them all:

Do not talk negatively about other members of the forum – it goes without saying that respecting other members is the most important rule on the forum. While rules against insulting others (like “you’re a jerk” or “screw you”) and provoking others (like “only a loser would like ACNL over ACNH” or “guess what, I reported you”) are obvious, I do want to cover complaining about other members or gossiping about them. Nowhere on the forums are you allowed to complain about other members, especially the What’s Bothering You Thread. This includes calling out their names and accusing them of stuff you don’t like, referring to other members by what they did on the forum, publicly shaming scammers, complaining about other groups of members, or even vaguely referring to them by mentioning their actions without mentioning where they come from. Doing this will insult or provoke other members, which can result in starting a fight. This also means you can’t share feedback about other members publicly.
- If you have a problem with another member, please privately message a staff member or create a thread in Contact the Staff. They will sort out the problem and talk to the member.
- If you have been scammed or been disrespected by someone who’s playing Animal Crossing with you, you can issue a negative Wi-Fi rating.
- If an action done by others bothers you, but they aren’t in violation of the rules, you need to respect their actions or decisions. They have the right to use the forums the way they want for as long as they follow the rules.
- You can’t even talk negatively about users who have been permanently banned. Once they have been kicked off, they are done with the forum. You don’t need to continue bringing up the past.
If you are a bigot, you are not welcome on the forum – in years past, there has been multiple instances of discrimination or discriminatory posts on the forum. They have made others feel unsafe or uncomfortable using the forums because some members have aired their hateful rhetoric. Because of this, the staff are quick to ban bigots permanently. Now some words or phrases are debatable if they’re hate speech or not, but stuff like slurs, stereotypes, hateful conspiracy theories, and threats to discriminate are definitely not allowed on the forums.
Posts that do not respect the lives of other members are serious violations – death threats towards other members, suicide dares or suicide requests, and death wishes directed at other members are all one-strike-your-out offenses. If you do any of that, just one slip-up, you are permanently banned from the forums, no matter how long you have been a member on the forums. Even doing this off-site (like in a Discord direct message or in an e-mail) will count against you, so you better watch out. And another thing. If you have been banned for this reason, you cannot appeal to your ban or create another account to circumvent the ban. You could wait as long as five years, ten years, or fifteen years, and they’ll still not let you back on once you have done this.
If someone makes an offensive or questionable post, please report it and refrain from inciting or participating in the argument – this is highly important. If someone is breaking the rules or has posted something offensive or inappropriate, please report to the staff. You can either report their posts or create a Contact the Staff thread about it. Starting a fight with another member could result in them getting defensive or fight back. And other members could join in and back either side. These arguments can get out of control. If this happens, the staff may have to close the threads, remove all argumentative or offending posts, and issue warnings. Also, some members might end up leaving if a fight has occurred.
Please be respectful towards the staff – the staff have done a lot of work for the community. They didn’t have to run the events, but they do this because they care for the community. You have the right to disagree with the staff over how they handle their moderation duties, how they run the site, or how they run the events, but if you have a problem with that, please use the Contact the Staff forum or write it in your feedback forms when the staff open them up after events. Any acts of disrespect towards the staff, individually or collectively, are not acceptable, whether it be aggressive behavior, provoking them, or insulting them.
Any trades that involve real money or items worth real value are not allowed on the forum – if you are trading forum collectibles, TBT Bells, in-game Bells, in-game items, or in-game villagers, all transactions are prohibited if you use real money or a representative of real money. Not only is it unfair to people who don’t have much money, but it’s also immoral and unethical to put a real-life price on something you do not own. Anything you get from the Animal Crossing games are owned by Nintendo, and anything made on the site for the site.
- It’s not just limited to real money or representatives of real money (like gift cards). They include everything that you have to spend real money to obtain, such as for-pay currencies, Nintendo merchandise, game keys, or real life arts and crafts. If you want to trade these for real money or other things worth real money, there are other sites you can do that on. But do it for digital items, that’s not acceptable.
Politics and religion are not to be discussed on the forum – as the forums’ history has shown, politics have done more harm than good. It has gotten many threads locked, divided many members, and made TBT an unwelcoming place. Not only that, but The Bell Tree Forums is a gaming site, and gaming sites aren’t built for political debates. Besides, there are other places to discuss politics.
- Now human rights slogans (such as “Black Lives Matter”) and complaints about oppression or bad government decisions in the What’s Bothering You Thread are allowed, but any debates about current issues, enforcing your moral viewpoints, or campaigning for a certain politician are not allowed.

There are other rules as well. Discussions of how to hack games or links to emulator sites, AI-generated content, and trades involving hacked items, stolen or traced artwork, and AI-generated content, are all forbidden on site. Auctions have their own rules as well. Signatures have their own rules too. And some threads, as well as events, have their sets of rules.

Tip #2 – Use Common Sense:

Even if something is not a rule violation, it can still be problematic. That’s why you need to watch your social cues. Sometimes, you can even have your posts deleted by the staff, even if whatever you did was not stated in the rules. You must use your social cues as well.

Here are some other tips to follow:

Do not bring attention to any websites or media that promote harm – whether you’re for them or against them, you shouldn’t post links or even talk about media (like books or movies) that contain extremist material, promote bigotry or terrorism, or have the intention to sow discord among people. This also means that you should not discuss cyberbullying websites or hate sites, especially sites that target Bell Tree users. If you mention them at all, you would bring attention to the sites, which can cause conflict on-site.
Do not bring up past drama – while it’s okay to bring up memories of past events and how much of trolls the staff can be, bringing up past conflicts, like scandals, arguments, or behaviors of other members or the community can reopen an old wound and start new arguments with members. We don’t need to bring them up again. Not only that, but some of these past conflicts may involve bans, and there’s a sitewide policy against discussing other members’ bans.
If there’s any ongoing drama, do not bring it up in other threads – if there was a fight going on in one discussion, and event, or about an Animal Crossing trade, do not talk them in the What’s Bothering You thread, Brewster’s Banter, Place Your Random Thoughts, or any other thread. Doing this will spill the drama everywhere else, which can cause trouble. We even had a chat group in the Basement that was closed by a moderator after repeated instances of that.
Do not post misinformation about the site or the staff – while it’s okay to be frustrated at something, please do not post false information about the incident or make up paranoid assumptions about it. Examples include “staff are missing”, “some members refuse to share their TBT”, and “this event doesn’t even reward enough currency”. The staff may receive different information than the users, but don’t make up lies.
If you received a collectible for free, do not sell it – aside to the fact that selling stuff you received as a gift comes off as ungrateful, if you participated in a user giveaway just to sell the collectible, were offered a collectible of your choice for free, or someone gave you something free as a kind gesture, reselling the collectible for TBT Bells would put a price on them, which would come off as unfair because you made Bells of something they didn’t make, as they could’ve done the same thing.
- If you did win a collectible in an official raffle hosted by the staff, you may resell the collectible you won. Just don’t do it to user-hosted giveaways, at least not within the first year of receiving the gift.
Respect others’ boundaries – if they ask you not to respond to their message on the What’s Bothering You Thread (via reply, DM, or profile message), don’t comment on their frustration. If they ask you not to buy their collectible for the sole purpose of resale, don’t buy it unless if you really want it. If they ask you not to go beyond their plaza when selling something in Animal Crossing, don’t do it. If they wish not to speak to you, leave them alone.
If you have a very sensitive or triggering story, please put it in a spoiler – for as long as it’s not against the rules, you have the right to post whatever you want. However, if it’s a sensitive story (like eating disorders, deaths of family, pets, or friends, or racial discrimination), you should keep it in a spoiler. Because not everybody wants to read that kind of content, especially if they experienced it.

Tip #3 – The staff are the law of the land, but the community as a whole are the ones who pull the strings:

The staff may be above everything, as you don’t have to comply with other members when they have something else, the site’s values are mostly determined by the community. They have control of what the staff won’t control since the staff want to be fairer and more welcoming. Your design choices are up to you, and small cliques don’t represent the community as a whole. But there are a few things they can all agree upon:

If you’re looking to buy or sell a collectible, use the price guide or collectible tier guide – while prices are up to you, most users rely on collectible price guides when buying or selling collectibles. Higher-priced collectibles will ask for more Bells, while lower-priced collectibles will ask for less. If you want to buy a higher-priced collectible, you may not be able to get it if your offer is below the price floor. If you want to sell a lower-priced collectible, you may not be able to sell it if your price is above the price ceiling.
Villagers are also subject to a tier list – when trading in-game items, all items are created equally, even though some of the rarer items and non-replenishable items come with a higher price. The same cannot be said for villagers. Some villagers, like Marshal, Raymond, Apollo, Rosie, Dom, and Fauna are higher in demand, which means you’ll have to spend a lot more on them to get them. While villagers like Chester, Caroline, Rocket, and Rodney, nobody really wants them, so if you’re gonna sell them, you’re better off giving them away.
Follow TBT Bell exchange rates – here are some instructions regarding both in-game Bells and event currency:
- For in-game Bells, when a new game comes out, the community will be more active, which will lead to more TBT Bells in circulation. But since the game is new, there aren’t as many in-game Bells in circulation. Therefore, IGB to TBT exchange rates (the rate of exchanging in-game Bells for forum Bells) are lower, meaning that it’s a lot easier to get more TBT Bells with less in-game Bells. However, this is also at a time when members want more Bells for Animal Crossing in order to get more items, pay off debts, and fund projects. But as the game gets older, the site gets less active, while the supply of in-game Bells will go up. The result is that the IGB to TBT exchange rate will go up. While this may be beneficial if you want to play Animal Crossing, it would be a detriment to those who value collectibles or other things that are traded for TBT.
- For event currency, the exchange rate depends on how many TBT is in circulation and the most event currency is distributed during the events. While event currency can’t be traded since it can only be earned by participating in the events, you can trade it by buying event-exclusive collectibles for other members. You can sell an “unpurchased event collectible” by collecting their TBT, then buying the collectible of their choice with your event currency. Since you can only have so much event currency, you can get the help from others.
Experienced members take collectibles very seriously – this is an unfortunate truth. Some of the TBT regulars and more recognizable members take collectibles, sidebar design, and TBT Bells more seriously. Collectibles that are higher in demand are essentially not tradable since users want these collectibles more. Meanwhile, collectibles that are lower in demand are not very popular among the community, which means you’ll have a more difficult time selling them. Sometimes, they take it so seriously that they behave abnormally when a high-demand item is available in the TBT shop. This is also why the staff have rules and instructions against asking other members for their raffle prizes.
Use the order forms when buying art – sometimes, an artist on the forum will draw your Animal Crossing characters or your original characters at a TBT Bell price, for collectibles, or for real money (since this is the one transaction real currency is allowed). Usually, they would sell art by setting up art shops, and when they have them, they will write in an order form, where you have to request a certain style, share pictures of your character, and then payment. Use the order forms exactly to the letter.

Another thing I want to point out is that while you are allowed to do business privately with another member, I recommend doing business up front. That means, only do it publicly on trading threads.

Tip #4 – The Bell Tree Forums has its own Discord server too:

This is true. The Bell Tree Forums has a Discord server, not just a regular site. Some of the events, like spectating online gameplay and Discord Trivia, take place on the Discord server. If you don’t like traditional forums, but still want to be part of the community, you can do it on Discord too. And if you have both a TBT Discord profile and a TBT account, you can link your Discord account to your TBT account to give yourself a colored username.

Just letting you know, the rules on Bell Tree’s Discord server is the same as the rules on the forum. Any rule violations on the server can count against you on not just the server, but also on the site as well. Also, if you’re a member of the server, you should make sure your server-exclusive Discord ID matches your user ID on Bell Tree.

Now spin-off servers, such as the Collectibles Hub, are not affiliated with the Bell Tree Forums, so they do not operate on the same set of rules. Whatever you do on-site won’t count towards your standing on these servers, and whatever you do on these servers won’t count towards your standing on the forum. Unless if you pose as a credible threat to another member’s safety, any transgressions done on the spin-off servers won’t get you warnings on the official site. But transgressions done on the TBT server will.

Unfortunately, the Discord server doesn’t have collectibles like the site does. Conversations move faster on Discord, and profiles don’t work the same like they do on the site.

Tip #5 – Use the right boards:

In case if you’re wondering where to go when making certain requests, here are the following tips:

If you want to discuss the site in general, whether you have questions, want to discuss collectibles, or other things, use the Bell Tree HQ forum. News announcements may appear in the Bulletin Board.
If you want to discuss Animal Crossing, use the New Horizons board for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the New Leaf board for Animal Crossing: New Leaf, the City Folk board for Animal Crossing: City Folk, the Wild World board for Animal Crossing: Wild World, and the Animal Crossing board for the GameCube Version. There’s also the Happy Home Designer board and Pocket Camp board for those respective games. Finally, if it’s a general Animal Crossing discussion that isn’t fit for any of these boards, like ideas for the next game or comparing the games, they belong to the General AC Discussion.
If you want to discuss Nintendo gaming or Nintendo-related stuff, you can post in the Nintendo Treehouse. But if you want to talk about Sony-related stuff, Xbox-related stuff, Steam-related stuff, or any other video gaming, they belong in the Gamer’s Lounge.
Any “off-topic” discussions, like TV shows, books, or daily activities go into Brewster’s Café. Any projects you made, like art projects, go into The Museum. Forum games, like the hurt/heal games, go into The Basement.
Regarding trading, anything for Bell Tree collectibles go to the TBT Marketplace. New Horizons items can only be traded in Nook’s Cranny. New Horizons villagers go to the New Neighbor Network. Other online gaming in ACNH goes to The Airport. And art sales and commissions go to the Museum Shop. Remember to read the shop forum rules or other helpful details for guidance.
When there is an event going on, you must go to the event boards. Keep in mind that event boards are only open when there’s an ongoing site event.
Finally, if you have a problem with another member, need to discuss why you received a particular warning, or have any other concerns like an illegitimate rating needs to be removed, use the Contact the Staff board. All users have their own private boards that are between only the user and the staff. Keep in mind that trivial questions or questions about other members’ warnings or bans can’t be asked here.

If someone has posted in the wrong board, you may report the thread and request it to be moved to another, whether it be your thread or others’ threads.

Counter-Arguments:

Although I have my fair share of bad experiences with the forum, I seem to have a more positive view than negative view. As I’m trying to talk about this site publicly to a large audience, I try my hardest to give it a positive image. However, past incidents on the site have given several users a negative impression of the site, including those who have been permanently banned. While their feelings are valid, I wouldn’t take advice from them if you are considering on joining The Bell Tree Forums. Some of them may spread misinformation, are promoting bigotry, or wouldn’t take responsibility. Therefore, I wouldn’t trust them as the voice of reason for the forum if you consider joining Bell Tree Forums today or when the new Animal Crossing game comes out.

Argument #1 – the site is too left-winged: I will have to agree on this. Judging by the demographics of who would play Animal Crossing (which are primarily women, millennials, Gen Zers, LGBTQ people, or people with disabilities), the users are more left-leaning. Not only that, there’s people from all over the world, which are from more liberal countries than America. However, those who foster extreme ideologies and have no tolerance towards neutrality do not represent the community as a whole. They are only part of the vocal minority, and they don’t agree with the staff either. Besides, political discussions are now prohibited on the forum. For as long as nobody’s talking politics, pretty much anyone can get along.
Argument #2 – the site is too right-winged: This is not true. As stated above, this site, as well as most other gaming sites and social media platforms, tend to attract liberal audiences. Such argument is more likely to come from someone who is upset at how right-winged members were allowed to air their opinions without moderation given that they don’t support bigotry or discrimination, while left-winged members who fight them get warnings for rude behavior. To be honest, the issue isn’t what you believe in, but rather how you state your viewpoints or respond to others’ viewpoints. If you feel the necessity to be rude, then you need to reconsider your decisions.
Argument #3 – the staff are unjust: Once again, this is not true. The staff as a whole tend to be fair and reasonable, as they want to keep the site safe, inclusive, and welcoming of everyone. I will agree that staff are not perfect. Even they admit that they are not perfect, while also acknowledging that they can’t please everyone. But when they issue a warning or ban, reject a submission, or remove posts, they do it for a reason. It’s not to pick favorite members or to silence opposing viewpoints. It’s to get people to behave better and to keep the site safe and fair. And another thing, they have no bias in favor or against another member.
- If we’re talking about inconsistency, they review all issues on a case-by-case basis. You may think it’s not fair that one person got a lighter penalty for the same thing you did, but if you have received several warnings, your violation is more severe, or you did other things along with your violation that are wrong, a harsher penalty than the other is justified.
Argument #4 – the staff are unresponsive: The staff listens to all feedback and concerns. If you feel that they are not responsive or they are slow to respond, it’s probably because they are too busy with real life or other forum duties, there’s no active staff members at a certain time of the day, or they need a careful discussion with the team as a whole before making a verdict. This is actually the first issue they went over in the Official Feedback Thread. They try to respond to all issues, but some issues are more complex than others.
Argument #5 – the site is too toxic: That issue has already been resolved a couple of times. In 2015, they added a rule against trolling. In 2020, they added a rule against excessive negativity and toxicity. And in 2025, they updated the Rules and Guidelines to be more detailed and organized. Yes, there will always be conflict, but the most problematic of the members do get removed from the community these days. While some of the more problematic users of the past have either improved greatly or have left the forum without coming back.

Regarding some of the arguments I just challenged here, there are many sites that are worse in many of these issues. But in the end, I would like to point out that the general community and the staff aren’t polarized to one side, the community is safe and friendly, the staff are responsive, and the staff are fair and just.

Additional Details:

I have a few more details to go over regarding the Bell Tree Forums. While I do not want the problems to discourage you from joining, they couldn’t be overlooked. Even though I’m a more experienced member, I wasn’t even here since forever. I only joined back when New Leaf was the main Animal Crossing game.

Other Notes:

After going over the advice, reasons to join, and counter arguments, I still have more useful information to go over.

This is not the only Animal Crossing fansite – other fansites include Nookazon (which is more of a trading site) and Animal Crossing Community (an old Animal Crossing fansite that was more active during the days of Wild World), as well as the short-lived AXA, BellBag, and Sapling Forums. What makes Bell Tree Forums stand out is how it stays relevant with today’s social media, it has collectibles, and it has yearly events. Each event even had at least one silly drama that makes the event more memorable, like how the 2017 TBT Fair had a obscenely hard mirror puzzle (which many people, especially me, called “Butterfly Peach”) or how some users went crazy over snowballing other members’ posts during the 2023 Christmas event. If you talk to me about the events, I have a lot of stories to tell you, which includes the time when they tampered with the swear filter to change every use of the word “Halloween” to “Christmas”.
This site was created on InvisionFree and then was hosted by ZetaBoards, vBulletin, and XenForo – back in 2004, it was created on a forum creator site called InvisionFree. During the era of TBT 1.0, it was on ZetaBoards. At the time, Wild World and City Folk were the main Animal Crossing games. Then in 2011, it transferred to vBulletin, which was the main software of TBT 2.0, the age of Animal Crossing: New Leaf. And in 2020, it transferred to XenForo. Right now, we’re on TBT 3.0.
Collectibles have always been an issue on the forum – throughout all of Bell Tree’s history, at least since the dawn of Animal Crossing: New Leaf, there were many issues, but they were eventually resolved by the staff. However, there was one issue that always had been a problem, and that is the collectible craze. From the days when people complained about Pokéball collectibles selling out fast, to the days that everyone went crazy over imposter glow wand collectibles, multiple issues have arrived, like racing to get a collectible before it sells out (like the chocolate cake), scarcity of older collectibles, the fact nobody wanted to even buy newer collectibles, and the vote-tampering incident. The collectible craze was even one of the issues to highlight in the Official Feedback Thread.
We sometimes get announcements called the Bell Tree Directs – each time there’s a new feature coming, new collectible introduced, or information about upcoming events, the staff would post an announcement thread to discuss what was new. They typically come with the following announcements:
- Staff changes, including new and retiring staff, and promotions and demotions.
- Feature changes, such as adding new features or changing older features.
- Rule updates.
- Upcoming events.
- Free Bells.
- And in earlier Bell Tree directs, shop restocks.
Some of the staff members have been on the staff team for over 10 years without retirement – this includes the few who spent the majority of their membership years as a staff member.
The site’s main time zone is Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5) – in case there is an event going on, they post the time, which is always in Eastern Time (the same time New York follows). If you live in a state that’s on Eastern Time, then “7:00 PM Fair Time” really is 7:00 PM. Most staff members come from North America, so any event scheduled in the morning or evening would be more convenient to North American users. But morning times are more inconvenient to Australian and East Asian users, and eventing times are more inconvenient to European users.
The site also has backdrops – while backdrops are only supposed to be temporary and only on display for events, you can decorate your profile with a themed backdrop. There are multiple backdrops for an event, and you can choose one.

Bell Tree Eras:

The eras of the Bell Tree Forums are unofficial and only decided by those who study Bell Tree history.

As of today, there are only 10 different eras of the Bell Tree Forums. They are:

Pioneer Era (November 7th, 2004 – December 4th, 2005): This is the earliest days of the Bell Tree Forums. At the time, the GameCube Version was the only Animal Crossing game. Some of the oldest members on the forum have joined at this time.
Wild World Era (December 5th, 2005 – November 15th, 2008): After the release of Animal Crossing: Wild World, the Bell Tree Forums entered a new era. These were the days Wild World was the main game.
City Folk Era (November 16th, 2008 – January 12th, 2011): The City Folk Era is defined as the days City Folk was the latest Animal Crossing game, but while Bell Tree Forums was on TBT 1.0.
Early TBT 2.0 Era (January 13th, 2011 – June 8th, 2013): With the 3DS coming out, the Bell Tree Forums have transitioned to the new age. For the rest of the 2010’s decade, they were on the vBulletin software. However, in the days before Animal Crossing: New Leaf, the site was mostly dead. Almost no posts were made at the time.
New Leaf Era (June 9th, 2013 – June 8th, 2016): After the release of Animal Crossing: New Leaf, the Bell Tree Forums came from a time it was almost completely inactive to one of the largest Animal Crossing fansites. The Bell Tree Forums of today had origins from this particular era. This was also when the collectible craze started, and where the first modern TBT events have commenced. At the time, the majority of the users have joined some time after ACNL’s release.
Retro Nights Era (June 9th, 2016 – October 20th, 2018): Named after the 2016 TBT Fair (which had the Summer Nights theme) and the 2017 TBT Fair (which had the Retro Arcade theme), the Retro Nights Era was a long, 28-month era, where the site was run by the exact same ten staff members. Around this time, events of one year get repeated the next year. One thing that was notable was that the community began to decline. After ACNL has been out for so long, and after a lack of new Animal Crossing game, the site has lost activity. This has created problems for the TBT Marketplace, but the site did get more peaceful.
Late TBT 2.0 Era (October 21st, 2018 – April 2nd, 2020): Once three of the ten staff members retired, the Bell Tree was at the last strip of the TBT 2.0 Era. After an announcement that Animal Crossing was getting a new game on the Nintendo Switch, people rejoiced, as the hype for the New Animal Crossing game began. Most events at the time were Bell Tree Weeks, which were week-long events about certain activities.
New Horizons Era (April 3rd, 2020 – March 19th, 2023): After the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and the change in forum software, they went to a new era. The Bell Tree was more active than ever before. However, during the early days, they had a static banner. They eventually added times of the day and seasons to coincide with New Horizons’ seasonal changes. New types of events and changes to pre-existing events have been introduced.
Stellar Era (March 20th, 2023 – December 31st, 2024): After three years of New Horizons, the site went down in activity again. But it remained to be more active for as long as an event is going on. Named after the Space Camp 2023, the Stellar Era was when they had the most events. 2024 was an especially big year for events, given that the 3DS servers shut down and the forum was observing its 20th anniversary. This era continued until the end of the first 20 years.
Feedback Era (January 1st, 2025 – present): Once the new year began, they entered the 10th era. This is otherwise known as the Feedback Era, named after The Official Feedback Thread. The drama surrounding the thread was the site at its most intense point. While a few events have been held, some of the decisions of the staff resulted in many members leaving. Some other notable events include the overhaul of the Rules and Guidelines, a New Year’s event, and the release of the ACNH 3.0 update.

Collectible Categories:

Just like the eras, the collectible categories are something I made up. While the staff and others don’t decide on that, it’s clear that collectibles can be placed in these 18 categories:

Basic Shop Collectibles – these are essentially the collectibles you can get any time of the year, except for the pies and love letters. They include birthstones, Japanese letters, cakes, mailboxes, envelopes, and scenery (backgrounds without the collectibles).
Fruit – these are all of the fruit collectibles. While the basic ones are like basic shop collectibles, most of them, particularly the perfect fruits and tropical fruits, were released as part of the Farewell to New Leaf Event.
Flowers – these are all of the flower collectibles. Regular ones like what you can buy from Timmy and Tommy in the games are like basic shop collectibles, but hybrid ones can only be grown during Flower Weeks.
Trophies and Award Collectibles – all award collectibles given to staff favorite winners, contest winners, and team champions go in this category. They are not tradable, for that they are like awards in real life.
Event Patches – when participating in a TBT Fair event, Camp TBT event, or a Bell Tree World Championship event, you’ll get a patch to show your participation. They are also not tradable, and if you don’t get them, you’ll never get them.
Participation and Other – all other non-tradable collectibles go in this category. They include the holiday candy canes, the “10” and “20” collectibles (for Bell Tree’s anniversary), the Neighborly Games tokens, and more.
Glow Wands – all tradable glow wand collectibles are part of this category. They include the ones from the 2016 TBT Fair, subsequent glow wands, and the ultra rare recolors of the original glow wands.
Night Sky Items – not counting rainbow ones, all star fragments, as well as crescent moons, fall in this category.
Balloons – nearly all balloon collectibles fall in this category. They include round, heart, and bunny balloons, both gradient and regular balloons.
Feathers, Game, & Party Items – this is for a good deal of TBT Fair collectibles and their variants. They include both regular and gradient feathers, pinwheels, party poppers, toy hammers, ice creams, Pokéballs, and arcade items.
Plushies – all plush collectibles fall under this category, regardless of origin.
Enchanted Forest – collectibles that were part of the Mushroom Week and the 2022 TBT Fair fall under this. They include forest crystals, mushroom lamps, and butterfly spirits.
Candy – all tradable candy collectibles will fall under this category. This includes both Halloween candies and Christmas candies.
Halloween – all Halloween and Halloween-related collectibles (except for the Halloweaster Eggs and candies) fall in this category. Basically potions, weird dolls, and collectibles with a purple background.
Christmas – all Christmas collectibles except for Christmas candies fall in this category. Most collectibles have a snowy background.
Easter and Halloweaster Eggs – all egg collectibles except for the golden egg and rotating fool’s egg fall in this category. In terms of number of collectibles, this is the largest category.
Set Builders – collectibles that require multiple collectibles to complete an image go in this category. As of today, the only sets are the oarfish, Chinese dragon, and toy train.
Unsorted – all other collectibles fall in this category.

Just letting you know, categories are subject to change at any time. If we were looking at the lens of December 31st, 2015, there would be only three categories, which are basic shop collectibles, event collectibles, and special collectibles. But since so many collectibles have been added since the end of 2015, this is no longer the case.

Conclusion:

That’s all I have to say if you’re considering on joining the Bell Tree Forums. But let’s go over a recap.

The Bell Tree Forums is a better place for Animal Crossing fans to join because it’s safe to trade Animal Crossing items, it’s more organized, there’s forum currency, there are site events, there are collectibles, and there is an island journal feature. The site also tends to stay relevant, which is why it’s still standing while most traditional forums have died.

If you join the forums, you should take all advice seriously. Read the Bell Tree Rules and Guidelines and follow every rule. Don’t bring up past drama, drama from other threads, harmful websites or media, or misinformation. If you comply with the community’s definition of exchange rates, collectible prices, or individual shop rules, you’ll get better business. And be sure to post on the right boards when creating a new thread.

If others tell you not to join, they have the right to be upset, but don’t let their bad experiences discourage you from joining. The site is neither far-left not far-right, the staff are fair and reasonable, and the community is friendly. Those who had a mostly negative experience would try to prove otherwise, and while they may be right, the forums aren’t always like that.

I’m also hoping to see more male users, American conservative users, a larger Australian community, and more people from countries that don’t have as many members like Mexico, Argentina, Netherlands, France, Spain, and Germany. Animal Crossing has become a global game that attracted many different demographics of players. If you’re one of these guys, and you play Animal Crossing, I hope to see you on Bell Tree Forums.

So when the next Animal Crossing game comes out, come join the Bell Tree Forums! If you were previously a member, come back. If you haven’t been a member, create a new account. It’s a better place to play Animal Crossing online with others, and be sure to participate in the events. Hopefully, you’ll be able to get as many collectibles. There is a lot of collectibles in circulation too. When you join, I hope you have a fun time.

Palm City Life 2026