ATTENTION BELL TREE VETERANS !!!! Is The Bell Tree Forums dying????

[Mr_Keroppi]

come back during the site events. it's at a lull right now because people are finishing school, busy irl etc but once the forum events like the fair come around, it'll be poppin'. the april fools event was SUPER dang busy for the forums.

Definitely this! The events are when EVERYONE comes online! Plus, I and many others have been busy with school and in the coming weeks as everyone finishes they are also online more

 

[Weiss Schnee]

I fee like TBT is very healthy. Alot of the discussion here is focused and thoughtful. I took a break for a spell but some of the same faces are still here. I'd say its 6 out of 10 on an active fourm scale but like. Almoooost a 7.

 

[VanitasFan26]

Despite my history with this website when I joined back in 2020 (trust me I don't want to talk about it) I know when ACNH was first released there was a lot of users on this website, but I think somewhere around 2022 is where most people left. Either because they have stopped playing ACNH and they find no use for the forums anymore or maybe its just the fact that many users have either quit of all sudden or never come back for reasons that are unknown. Even I am surprised that its not as active as it used to be.

The problem is ACNH the game itself is not as popular as it used to be and many people who relied on sites like this one and Nookazon for trading there aren't many people on trading sites as they used to back during the time when the game was popular. Its pretty hard find anyone trading these days and most times when they do they often take too long or just somehow forget.

There are some people who still come around but most times its very quiet unless if there is event happening.

 

[oath2order]

I actually got into TBT about 2 years after New Leaf came out, and it was definitely more active than New Horizons was 2 years out. Like others have said that's probably due to the lack of updates for NH.

I'm curious if we'll get another spin-off game before the next main line release. And if so, would TBT's traffic increase? New Horizons brought Animal Crossing into the public eye more than ever before. So it's possible that with the next main-line game release (depending on how good it is, and how much support Nintendo decides to give it) we could see more users than ever.

It's weird, though. NL's Welcome Amiibo came out in 2016, 4 years after release.

I would imagine there would be a spike in activity upon announcement of the spin-off, and probably a bit upon release.

I'm honestly really surprised at how quickly the activity after NH died off considering what you mentioned with it being in the public eye more than before.

 

[Tindre]

Its a niche forum for a specific game series, so of course it will slowly become more and more inactive between releases. Its pretty natural especially with the heavy competition for attention nowadays. (Also people get older and they might change a lot during the years too, I mostly come here because I like to lurk and look up things but I don’t actively play right now, too busy)

Edit: forgot to mention discord, its just so much more concenient to use to communicate with other fans

 

[Spongebob]

I randomly decided to log back in today after not having been on in like 3 years. I feel like, at least for me, whenever I think about Animal Crossing, this sites always on the back of my mind. I spent so much of my middle school days on this account (my account turning 10 years old next year still doesn’t feel real ) and I feel like quite a bit of people who were also majorly into Animal Crossing have similar stories. I think there’s a lull right now because New Horizons hit its peak a while ago, once the next Animal Crossing comes out there’s gonna be a spike in activity on here again.

Post automatically merged: May 31, 2023

I'm honestly really surprised at how quickly the activity after NH died off considering what you mentioned with it being in the public eye more than before.

I think it comes down to NH not really being a game with great longevity tbh, certainly not as much replay value as New Leaf had.

 

[Kitsuragi]

I randomly decided to log back in today after not having been on in like 3 years. I feel like, at least for me, whenever I think about Animal Crossing, this sites always on the back of my mind. I spent so much of my middle school days on this account (my account turning 10 years old next year still doesn’t feel real ) and I feel like quite a bit of people who were also majorly into Animal Crossing have similar stories. I think there’s a lull right now because New Horizons hit its peak a while ago, once the next Animal Crossing comes out there’s gonna be a spike in activity on here again.

this site will always be synonymous with animal crossing to me, even if it ever goes down one day i'll still probably think about it lol

 

[xSuperMario64x]

But wow did NH fall off real quick. Maybe it's just me misremembering, but I feel like New Leaf absolutely lasted a bit longer post-release. I feel like it was definitely still going pretty strong 3 years on.

it definitely fell off really quickly. I remember the new leaf community still being pretty active in 2017 and even 2018. new horizons dropped off so fast, I know I personally stopped playing after basically 4 months.

but despite that this forum is still going pretty strong. it's kinda dead right now but it's not nearly falling out of relevance, at least thats what i think.

 

[cornimer]

But wow did NH fall off real quick. Maybe it's just me misremembering, but I feel like New Leaf absolutely lasted a bit longer post-release. I feel like it was definitely still going pretty strong 3 years on.

You're totally right. As others have said, I feel like the New Leaf surge lasted into 2018 (5 years)! The New Horizons surge didn't even last 3 years.

For me personally, this is in line with the draw of the games. I played New Leaf every day for about 4 years. I only actively played New Horizons for....maybe 8 months? It started to feel repetitive and stale pretty fast.

 

[VanitasFan26]

You're totally right. As others have said, I feel like the New Leaf surge lasted into 2018 (5 years)! The New Horizons surge didn't even last 3 years.

For me personally, this is in line with the draw of the games. I played New Leaf every day for about 4 years. I only actively played New Horizons for....maybe 8 months? It started to feel repetitive and stale pretty fast.

And when Nintendo said they had "no plans" to add expansions and or updates to New Horizions I feel like that was at that point people started dropping the game because they figured that the game was "dead" at that point.

 

[LambdaDelta]

It's wild, because I just recently got back into NH and am having a surprising amount of fun with it, especially now that I've managed to luck my way into some catalog islands.

But wow did NH fall off real quick. Maybe it's just me misremembering, but I feel like New Leaf absolutely lasted a bit longer post-release. I feel like it was definitely still going pretty strong 3 years on.

Now, for NH, it's pretty difficult to find catalog islands and the like.

I love nh, but yeah. nintendo really dropped the ball hardcore on it

I mean I get that they never expected it to take off during the pandemic period like it did, and even some of the additional content we got may never of happened if it hadn't, but even so. they could've certainly adjusted course to try to keep the game a bit more relevant, instead of just mostly adding in stuff that should've been there from the beginning and then leaving

honestly, just the fact that we don't have futureproof new year's x year exclusive items when every prior game does kinda speaks volumes alone

 

[Jeremy]

Gaming forums may have been declining over the last decade, but TBT has actually been mostly immune from that trend. We're fortunate to be the third largest Nintendo-based forum now, and probably also one of the more active ones. Being less active between game releases is normal for us, especially this time of year between Easter and summer.

The comparisons between NL and NH are valid, at least based on our daily posts. When NL was released, the forum grew slowly through 2014 and then steadily declined. When NH was released, we had an immediate spike far above the NL era. It was our busiest time ever, even in spite of our downtime in the beginning. However, the spike in activity fell much faster than NL's. As a lot of you have already mentioned, it seems NH wasn't as long-lasting as NL.

 

[Newbiemayor]

everything is mobile now and no one really wants to post on a forum on their phone​

I browse this site exclusively on my phone tbh >->

 

[skarmoury]

It's wild, because I just recently got back into NH and am having a surprising amount of fun with it, especially now that I've managed to luck my way into some catalog islands.

But wow did NH fall off real quick. Maybe it's just me misremembering, but I feel like New Leaf absolutely lasted a bit longer post-release. I feel like it was definitely still going pretty strong 3 years on.

Now, for NH, it's pretty difficult to find catalog islands and the like.

I didn’t want to admit it myself, but yeah NL era was pretty much busier than NH era. I joined 2 years after NL and the forums were still busy. I think traffic only slowed down in 2018-2019 (we didn’t have TBT fair those years too afaik), which is pretty impressive considering NL came out in 2013. I honestly think though that there are many factors to TBT not being active anymore, the internet has pretty much expanded and people probably found their niche communities elsewhere.
TBT is still close to my heart but I miss so many people I met during the pre-NH era, it was definitely a different time than now. I remember the weddings and other roleplay stuff in the basement, it was so random and goofy but they were definitely fun.

 

[Foreverfox]

I browse this site exclusively on my phone tbh >->

I do too for the most part.

 

[Croconaw]

I do too for the most part.

I have no choice but to browse the forum with my phone. I haven’t had a laptop for over a decade. It’s gotten easier just because I’ve been doing it so much. Mobile is just my way of accessing the internet now.

 

[StarlitGlitch]

As far as forums go I'd say TBT runs very smoothly on mobile compared to others, eg the auto-formatting works well. I just prefer typing up comments and checking thread activity on my laptop instead.

 

[oath2order]

Gaming forums may have been declining over the last decade, but TBT has actually been mostly immune from that trend. We're fortunate to be the third largest Nintendo-based forum now, and probably also one of the more active ones. Being less active between game releases is normal for us, especially this time of year between Easter and summer.

The comparisons between NL and NH are valid, at least based on our daily posts. When NL was released, the forum grew slowly through 2014 and then steadily declined. When NH was released, we had an immediate spike far above the NL era. It was our busiest time ever, even in spite of our downtime in the beginning. However, the spike in activity fell much faster than NL's. As a lot of you have already mentioned, it seems NH wasn't as long-lasting as NL.

Just out of curiosity, where do you get those rankings from? I'm wondering who the top 2 are.

And 4th and 5th.

 

[pawpatrolbab]

Whenever I come online I'm really surprised with the lack of people on...but at the end of the day if we don't want the site to die then we should be the ones coming online and making sure that activity is still happening. It is a community after all which means we all need to participate for it to grow : )

 

[Kitsuragi]

come back during the site events. it's at a lull right now because people are finishing school, busy irl etc but once the forum events like the fair come around, it'll be poppin'. the april fools event was SUPER dang busy for the forums.

well guess what, mimi