To help keep The Bell Tree a welcoming and positive community for everyone, members should interact respectfully and constructively across all areas of the community.
All members must be treated with courtesy, including in public posts, profile posts, feedback ratings, on-site direct messages, and interactions on The Bell Tree Discord server or any other official social media. The following behaviors are prohibited on The Bell Tree: negative, aggressive, or passive aggressive comments, bullying, harassment, threats, intimidation, dog-piling, sexual harassment or sexual remarks, stalking, discrimination, or any other antisocial behavior.
Disagreements and debates are allowed, but they should be civil, constructive, and focus on ideas, not individuals. Posts to or about other users may never contain personal attacks, baiting, trolling, vague-posting, retaliation, or use dismissive or hostile phrasing. Members should step away from heated discussions and report rule-breaking behavior.
When a member is indefinitely banned, staff have determined that their continued presence negatively impacts the community. Public promotion, protest, or symbolic support of a banned user is not allowed, as it can reopen conflicts and make others feel unsafe. [📄 See full Respectful Conduct policy ]
All activity on-site is moderated under the Community Guidelines. This includes public posts, profile content, direct messages, The Bell Tree Discord server, Twitch streams, and other official social media spaces.
Most off-site interactions between members are outside the scope of staff and will not be moderated. If the interaction was in an offshoot community (i.e., a space closely associated with The Bell Tree), staff may take moderation action if the behavior poses a credible risk to community safety, comfort, or inclusivity. Interactions in unassociated communities (i.e., platforms with no ties to The Bell Tree) are not moderated unless there is a clear and significant threat to the wider community. [📄 See full Moderating On- and Off-site Behavior policy ]
Trades and commissions must be handled honestly and respectfully. Members should communicate clearly, only post in threads where they intend to trade with the thread creator, and follow through on agreed transactions.
Public blacklisting is not allowed. Members should use the feedback system to leave factual, civil feedback about on-site trades or commissions, whether positive, neutral, or negative. [📄 See full Trading and Feedback policy ]
To help keep discussions on The Bell Tree meaningful, posts are expected to meet a basic standard of quality. Content that falls below these standards may be removed.
Posts should be relevant and contribute meaningfully to the discussion. Low-effort content, such as one-word replies, memes, reaction GIFs, or emojis without accompanying text, may be removed. Instead, consider using a reaction or expanding on your thoughts to add to the conversation. Threads that encourage low-quality responses may be removed or moved to The Basement, where post quality rules are less strictly enforced due to the casual nature of the board.
Posts should be coherent and written in English so they can be understood by other members and moderators.
Text posted to the forum should reflect your own thoughts and be written in your own words. Do not post text copied from other sources or generated by AI. If you'd like to quote someone else, use quote tags and give credit to the author. [📄 See full AI-Generated Content policy ]
Do not create posts solely to advertise or promote a website, social media account, Discord server, YouTube channel or video, online shop, fundraiser, or similar content. Personal links may be shared in your signature instead.
Repeated posts that are consistently negative or toxic may be removed. While differing opinions are welcome, excessive negativity can stifle discussion and bring down the overall atmosphere of the forum.
Bumping on The Bell Tree is defined as posting a non-substantive reply, such as “bump,” for the sole purpose of moving a thread to the top of the forum to increase its visibility. Bumping is only allowed in trading threads and only by the original thread creator. The thread must be inactive for at least four hours, or eight hours in the Animal Crossing amiibo Card Post Office board.
Necroposting, or replying to very old threads, is allowed on The Bell Tree in discussion threads as long as the topic remains relevant and the reply adds value to the discussion.
An individual person is only allowed to own and use a single account, and an account may not be shared. You must be at least 13 years of age to register on and use the forum. Your account must be created for the purpose of participating in the community in some form. You are responsible for what’s posted by your account, even if another person uses it or it is used to repost another user’s content.
Your chosen username must be appropriate and abide by our rules when registering or changing your username. If it is not appropriate, the staff will require you to change it.
If you forget your sign-in details and are unable to log into your account, it is not acceptable to register another account. Instead, please use the Contact Us form to receive assistance in recovering your account.
While gifting and trading collectibles and bells between accounts is acceptable, when a person’s account becomes inactive and is only used during events and giveaways to benefit another person’s account, that creates a situation where the other person gains an unfair advantage of collectibles and bells over other users abiding by the rules. To ensure fairness to other users, we will treat the inactive account as an alternate account when this happens. The first offense will result in both accounts being messaged by the staff and told to stop any further transactions between both accounts, in addition to any collectible and bell transactions between the accounts being reversed. The second offense will result in the standard alternate account punishment being applied.
Switching from an older account to a completely new account will only be allowed under extraordinary circumstances. However, the account switch must be discussed with and approved by the staff first. Failure to get the staff’s approval first will result in the new account being treated as an alternate account.
Users are allowed to customize their profiles to share information about themselves, as well as to share their personality and express themselves on the forums. The customizable profile fields include your avatar, signature, and custom title. No part of a user's profile is allowed to include any content that breaks our Prohibited Content rules, including any inappropriate usage of the Pronouns field or using any AI-generated images and text. Any part of the profile that breaks these rules will be removed and the user will receive either a message or warning depending on the severity of the violation. For more information on what is and is not allowed, please see the Prohibited Content rules and [📄 Policies on AI-Generated Content ].
In addition to not including any prohibited content, there are additional rules signatures must follow. They are not allowed to exceed a total height of 250 pixels, including all images, text, white space, and spoiler tags. There are no width restrictions. Any images or GIFs are not allowed to exceed 5 MB in size. If a signature violates these rules, a staff member will edit it to be enclosed in a spoiler tag, with information below it detailing the signature guidelines. If this happens three times in a row within the span of a month, a staff member will message the user in order to correct the signature. A warning will only be issued when a user continues to disregard the guidelines despite the staff reaching out.
To check whether or not your signature abides by our rules, it’s recommended you post in The Signature Guide thread, where a staff member or another user can let you know if it’s size compliant.
Posts made on any profile, whether it’s your own or another user’s, are not subject to Post Quality rules. However, they must still abide by our rules on Respecting Others and Prohibited Content. Failure to do so will result in your profile post being deleted along with a notification or warning depending on the violation.
All users are free to delete any posts on their profile in addition to any posts they make on another user’s profile for any reason.
When you visit another island, be sure to follow the rules that the host creates for it. If you don't like their rules, you can always leave. Please use common sense when interacting on another player’s island.
For example, don’t shake trees or pluck flowers without asking permission first. If you see an item on the ground (shells, dropped items or even weeds), you should always ask the island host if you’re allowed to take it!
Before inviting other players to your island, make sure to write out your rules clearly to avoid any confusion, frustration, or potential accidents. Not all players, especially newcomers, know the common rules on most islands.
For example, state your preference for how you’ll end the multiplayer session:We expect all members to honor any trade agreements they make. You should not scam or steal from other players. Exploiting game glitches for gain is also not allowed. This includes using The Bell Tree to sell duplicated items or using the forum to find people to duplicate items for you. In this way, we hope to reduce the negative impact that cheating has on the game.
Even if you meet other players on this forum, please remember that you are still responsible for yourself and your island. The Bell Tree cannot be responsible for what someone else says to you online or what they do to your island. If you want to end the multiplayer session quickly, you may press the minus ( - ) button and select “End Session”. This will prompt visitors to stop whatever they're doing (e.g., looking through menu screens, talking to villagers, fishing, etc.) and kick everyone off your island.
After your multiplayer session, if you had a positive experience, make sure to leave positive feedback to those island hosts! As with negative feedback, to give positive feedback to a user, click their profile and go to the Feedback tab. You can also click the ( + ) icon on the user's display profile when you're in certain boards, like The Airport (AC:NH Online), Nook's Cranny, and New Neighbor Network.
Examples of positive feedback:Transactions on The Bell Tree should be straightforward, honest, and must be agreed upon by all parties.
All transactions should take place on the forum. Staff cannot recover or replace in-game items or currency. Fraudulent transactions involving forum collectibles or TBT Bells should be reported to the staff through the Contact the Staff board or the Report feature. The feedback system may be used to provide positive, neutral, or negative feedback on any forum transaction. It should be factual, relate to a specific transaction, and should not be used for personal attacks. [📄 See full General Trading Principles ]
Auctions may be used for Animal Crossing in-game items, currency, and villagers, as well as forum collectibles, and original artwork. Any other items require staff approval.
All auctions must state the starting bid, minimum increment, exact start and end times (including time zone), currency being used, and if there are any special conditions. Bids must be placed within the auction thread only, and auctions may not be cross-posted to other sites. The highest valid bid before the stated end time wins, and auctioneers and bidders are expected to follow through with the transaction.
Selling threads that function like auctions, such as those that wait for offers to rise before responding or imply they will wait to select the highest offer, may be required to follow auction rules or be closed. [📄 See Auction Rules ]
Members may trade or commission original artwork through the Museum Shop or privately on the forum. AI-generated content of any kind, images generated with character-creation tools, or content not made entirely by the member are not considered original artwork, and may not be traded.
Non-monetary transactions include trading artwork for in-game items, forum currency, collectibles, or other artwork. These transactions are moderated when they take place on-site.
Real-life currency (RLC) art transactions include trading artwork for RLC or items with real world value (e.g., a digital code). These transactions may be arranged on the forums either publicly or in private, but they are private agreements between members, and they are not moderated by staff beyond enforcing forum rules. Members who participate in RLC transactions should be aware that they do so at their own risk. Buyers and sellers are strongly encouraged to use clear written agreements, safe payment practices, and minimize revealing private information. Members who do not act in good faith may be restricted from using the Museum Shop in the future. [📄 See full Art Commissions & Trades policy]
Certain types of transactions are not permitted on The Bell Tree, regardless of whether they are conducted publicly or privately. These rules exist to maintain fairness, protect the community, and avoid financial misconduct. Engaging in prohibited transactions could result in the removal of forum items or currency, loss of access to specific areas of The Bell Tree, temporary account bans, and permanent bans in egregious cases.
Real life currency (RLC) refers to any form of real money, such as cash, PayPal deposits, and electronic funds transfers. Real world value (RWV) refers to items that have real monetary value outside of the forum, including gift cards (physical or digital), paid content, download codes for games, online subscriptions, physical goods, or paid digital currencies (e.g., DeviantArt Points, Flight Rising Gems, and PokéHeroes Nuggets).
The following items or services may not be sold, bought, or traded for RLC or anything with RWV. These items may only be traded using forum currency and items, in-game currency, items, or services, or artwork: