Seashells and username change, options?

[FoxFeathers]

So, I've been around an age and so I think I might have been "pre-shell". I don't recall ever getting any and somehow I have 3. From what I understand you get 10 when you start and 10 on your anniversary but I don't recall ever getting those. Is there I place I have to go to claim them?

If not, I wanted to change my username but I don't have close to the bells for it. Is it allowed to make a new account and shift over items?

 

[jadetine]

So, I've been around an age and so I think I might have been "pre-shell". I don't recall ever getting any and somehow I have 3. From what I understand you get 10 when you start and 10 on your anniversary but I don't recall ever getting those. Is there I place I have to go to claim them?

If not, I wanted to change my username but I don't have close to the bells for it. Is it allowed to make a new account and shift over items?

You have 10 seashells according to what I can see? Yay?

 

[LadyDestani]

I don't know when seashells were introduced, but I didn't have to do anything special to claim mine. They were just given to me at the appropriate times.

Making a new account is not allowed per the rules:

Accounts

• An individual person should only own and use a single account, and an account should only be used by a single person.
• You must be at least 13 years of age to register on and use the forum.
• Account switches are not allowed unless under extraordinary circumstances and must be approved by the staff.
• If you made more than one account by mistake, please continue using only your original one and contact the staff so they can disable the others.
• An account that exists solely to benefit another account in terms of bell and collectible gifts will be treated the same as an alternate account.
• You are responsible for what's posted by your account, so be sure to log out if other people use your computer to visit The Bell Tree.
• An account will not be deleted upon request unless it has fewer than 12 posts. However, when there are serious privacy concerns or potential for real-world harm, your username or specific posted content may be edited as a courtesy.

 

[Croconaw]

You can’t make a new account, but you can purchase a username change. I’m unsure where you’re seeing that you have three. You currently have ten seashells.

 

[-Mars-]

Like others are saying I also see you have 10 seashells on my screen.

 

[FoxFeathers]

View attachment 435084
You have 10 seashells according to what I can see? Yay?

How weird! For me when I went to the shop it said I only had 3. But yay! Problem solved, thank you!

 

[Chris]

How the seashell currency works (and how it impacts users who registered prior to it's introduction) is explained in our Frequently Asked Questions About The Bell Tree. Users who registered prior to October 2015 will only ever receive a maximum of 10 seashells due to having received 800 forum bells when they first registered as a welcome gift. We removed the welcome bells scheme due to users abusing it by making alternate accounts and transferring those bells to their main account. Users who registered after the date we discontinued the welcome bells in October 2015 will receive 20 seashells during their membership. I'll also quote here the relevant section from our FAQ below:

15. What Are Seashells? How Do I Get Them and Use Them?
Seashells were introduced in 2016 as an alternate currency alongside bells to be used in ‘Kapp’n’s Seaside Shack Shop.’ They were given to new users to make purchasing some forum add-ons like name changes or user title color items more accessible.

This was later extended to those that had been members of The Bell Tree for a minimum of two years with at least 20 posts. This feature was inaccessible since moving from vBulletin to XenForo in early-2020.

As of August 14, 2020, seashells have been reintroduced for new members and members of at least two years for a maximum of 20 seashells per member. There is no other way to obtain these at this time. Only certain items may be bought with seashells but we are hoping to add more variety in the future. You may purchase add-ons with seashells in the shop here.

 

[~Kilza~]

Users who registered prior to October 2015 will only ever receive a maximum of 10 seashells due to having received 800 forum bells when they first registered as a welcome gift.

So what happened if somebody who registered before October 2015 never received welcome bells?

 

[Chris]

So what happened if somebody who registered before October 2015 never received welcome bells?

This was a number of years ago now, so it's testing my memory a bit! Our first strategy to trying to counteract the abuse to this system was to make it so that you had to achieve a certain post count before you received them. This made it easier for us to catch fake accounts, especially as it was at a time where Basement posting did not add to your post count so people who were spamming lazy posts to quickly reach a specific total made themselves obvious. If you didn't reach the required post count before they were discontinued then this wouldn't have been compensated. Looking at your logs I can see that you didn't become active on TBT until 2020, so this would be the case in your scenario.