What’s your current opinion on this site?

[-Apples-]

Just to see how everyone thinks about this site as of now, what’s your current opinion? Do you like it, hate it, or anything else? What improvements would you suggest?

Right now, my view towards the site is positive. The community is nice, the staff are fair, the events are fun, and I like the very idea of collectibles (I don’t know if there is another forum site that has collectibles). The only thing wrong with this site is how people take collectibles too seriously and how difficult it is to buy or sell stuff on the TBT Marketplace. Now the site used to be a lot worse, but those days are over. It’s all in the past.

 

[QueenCobra]

Love it! It works pretty well, and everyone here is nice and open-minded. I hope we can keep this up!

I didn’t join until 2022, so I can’t speak to how it used to be, but my experience has been a positive one.

 

[SkyKnight03]

Positive.

I want nothing more than to just chill out here and it's a good place for that.

 

[MrBox]

If we're talking about collectibles? Crazy. I don't think I'd ever personally recommend this site to any of my friends cause of how insane people are on this site- not that they'd even join regarding the recent thing with how TBT judges "effort" for entries.. and just how stiff this whole site is with everything- they all got their own stressors, no need to add another one

But in terms of Animal Crossing, it's great!! I love it. People come in clutch with so many things in game !!! It's great

 

[Dunquixote]

I love this site, but it isn’t perfect. I think some of the rules don’t make any sense like the mini modding—people get infractions for helping newcomers by redirecting them to the correct forum.

The events could be structured better and have a better voting and judging system and more categories so more people regardless of skill can have more chances of winning as long as there is clear effort involved while people with skill also be able to win categories that involve more skill. Maybe have more mods and rotate them for some events?

After some good talks with a friend, I understand now it is better to just try to enjoy the event and not get too preoccupied with winning, than enter hoping to win off the get go. It has helped me enjoy the event more but at the same time, i still feel frustrated at times and discouraged. I’m doing what I can to improve and I do understand to not expect it just to be handed to me. I can’t help but feel like something could be improved to make it more fair while skilled artists can still be rewarded.

There is some other things that concern me too but I can’t mention them here.

 

[sleepey]

i’m having fun here!! the collectible scalping is a bit… odd… and i can see why ppl think the rules are stiff, but the forum i’m from talking about it like it’s a country… being chronically on animal crossing forums feels like that huh is like… notoriously a lot worse. i love how freely and openly ppl are queer/trans here! that’s like, a night and day difference for me!

not that they'd even join regarding the recent thing with how TBT judges "effort" for entries..

ngl that kinda like !!! threw me off hehe ^__^ i was having a lot of fun here and it really dampened my spirits for a few days… still wondering if staff will address it in any way but i’ll still have funnn ! we’re on an animal crossing forum ppl !!

 

[Croconaw]

I stay away from collectibles and the cliquey side of it.

I’m mostly here for off-topic discussion but again, I stay away from controversial topics. I don’t think those kinds of things have a place on an Animal Crossing forum either.

There are a few things about TBT that don’t sit right with me, but that doesn’t mean it’s a terrible forum by any means. I just focus on the things about it that I like, like the events, even if those can be a bit too cliquey for my liking.

 

[Corrie]

I have like no friends here lol so I use it for buying art and animal crossing items! It's the best site for that imo!

 

[skarmoury]

So-so, I've met many great friends here and I've had a lot of fun with several events! This site helped me become a better artist because the events motivate me; otherwise I don't think I'd enjoy art as much. I like the idea of there being a prompt, seeing other's art, and giving and receiving compliments I love how supportive so many people are on here, thank you so much for making the site a little bit brighter!

That being said I think the one major thing I'd like to comment is about collectibles as well..... I would really really love if the rare collectibles became a little more common (e.g. wands), I personally am not a big fan of how terribly hard it is to get some collectibles! I understand collectible trophies and stuff as being just for winners, but otherwise I wish we'd have more stock of the more 'rare' collectibles Kinda sad that last fair we were only able to get one wand max and nothing else (maybe 1 frag if you got the OG wand), when I remember back in 2016 the wands were rather common and you could end up with I think 2-3 of them? It would just be neat if more people could afford them is all!

 

[LambdaDelta]

I think it's a site on the internet

I remember back in 2016 the wands were rather common and you could end up with I think 2-3 of them?

all 3 was very much possible. I did that myself. participation currency only too, ftr


but yeah, same, re:above. I have never held any fondness for the artificial scarcity of collectibles. moreso, when they're done clearly after the fact and simply based upon community trends


though also, and I know this will be a somewhat hot take, but I've come to thinking removing limited stock collectibles during events has been a net negative for the economic side of things overall

I mean don't get me wrong, not having to go nolife mode to snipe something is great. but that it also comes with reduced earnings means people are far more restricted in being able to get stuff just for bartering etc. which means a lot of just buying specifically wanted items and little of much else, so now practically everything just ends up more scarce as a result

like idk. I may be overthinking it, but as someone involved in the market both before and after this change, I feel there's a very real correlation between event collectibles being all unlimited stock and the current economic situation that tbt has been in for a while now (not that it's the only problem, imo)

tl;dr unlimited stock collectibles during events, with currency earnings being like that of the limited stock event collectibles era would be best, imo

 

[-Raven-]

The community here is precious. I suck at keeping up with anyone but some of you legit made a difference in my life so thanks.

The collectables suck. 1000%. I have one dream collectable left and I’m just not bothering. It could be cool to work to multiple lineups and it’s something I would normally lose myself over but new lineups are genuinely unattainable if you aren’t focusing on making connections for it or saving for many months (you either do that or spend on events, and the collectables from them just don’t sell or offer trade value, you genuinely can’t work up or trade for things that should theoretically be the same value). Admittedly this is in part a community problem but I just see the trade market as a separate stupid thing. Some people here are very generous and sweet and thank you so much to everyone who donated to my namechange but collectables are a beast.

The events are fun if you’re in the right mindset, I appreciate that they’re held. But the competition aspect has been complained about enough, and along with my own mental health, pushed me away from joining again since the same people tend to win without special rewards for runners-up. Sometimes just some extra event coins and those offer little to no value if you don’t already want extra collectables from those events. Goes back to the problem of the trade market being unhealthy. To the point flat bell rewards would be more useful. So.

I wish I had the option to make the site theme reflect southern hemisphere season. I would even give up some of the unique banner updates for it sometimes.

I’m glad there’s still a forum on the internet that a) is active, b) has a cool community. It’s good. It’s not perfect and some of these things (collectables) don’t seem to have been tackled in any meaningful way. If the collectable market was healthy then I would be more active again to work on collecting and if I hadn’t been so upset over one art contest I would have kept joining those, but I’m just out on those things. I just visit to post about random things because people here are still nice, but I always got the vibe there were some things I shouldn’t be too invested in here. How much of that is me versus community issues, you can judge. I wish I still had the same level of energy I did two years ago because being on this site at that time was awesome for me. It wasn’t that long ago so I would imagine a lot of it is just my mental state rather than an overwhelming change on the site. The mods still keep up events which is way more than a lot of communities do and genuinely impressive, it’s surely kept a lot of life here despite some things being stagnant and a lot of people not even spending as much time on the AC boards.

Edit: some of this is also from me not keeping up with events for the last couple months so maybe some things have changed, take what I’m saying with a grain of salt since my overall investment isn’t much anymore. That lack of energy to even keep up is definitely me, not lack of things happening on the site.

Edit2: this is also one of the only places where I don’t feel invisible as a trans man, so as silly as that sounds it’s genuinely a bonus

 

[nightglow]

Positive.

I enjoy being here and reading what others have to say on all kinds of stuff, even if controversial. Hopefully others feel the same.

There is a couple of things I would critique, but that is more of a community/members thing than how the forum is ran. So, I'll leave that unsaid.

Collectibles are nice, but I'd still be here if they disappeared for some reason.

 

[Nunnafinga]

Eh...it ain't what it used to be.That's not necessarily the fault of the people who run this place but I'll get back to that.I think TBT is doing fairly well for a website that's been around as long as it has.There's still an active community here and generally the people here are decent and considerate.However,there are not nearly as many of those decent and considerate people that are still active here.When there's more people being active it means there's a better variety of personalities,opinions and general knowledge.A lot of members are no longer active,have simply given up on this place or have been asked to leave.When that happens a community gets whittled down to its core membership and core members tend to be mostly of the same mindset.There's nothing wrong with that but the sameness does make the place a lot less interesting to me.

Getting back to the people that run this place,I've noticed a lot less tolerance from them for posts that might be considered by some to be somewhat controversial or political.Any signs of smoke or fire are extinguished with a quickness.Sometimes that's necessary but to me it feels like our collective freedom of expression has been curtailed to a degree.Yeah,this is a website dedicated to a video game but does that mean we can't express ourselves on certain topics,even if it's done in a non-confrontational manner?I know there's a lot of hate and political divisiveness in the world right now but sometimes things need to expressed or said.

Anyways,that's my two cents.

 

[seliph]

Lately I've just gotten more and more disappointed. I honestly thought it was getting better here for a bit but fool me twice shame on me! If you 100% stick to Animal Crossing it's fine, but otherwise it gets messy.

For one, the rules are enforced wildly inconsistently;

• Posting about other forum members isn't allowed, except for when it is.
• How much """effort""" is considered enough in entries for art events, as well as the definition of effort.
• Stand up for yourself when being directly insulted and you'll get a "rude behaviour" warning within minutes, but it takes months to get posts with overt right-wing/TERF rhetoric deleted because they don't outright say "I think trans people should die out".
• The idea that this is a "welcoming community", but that often includes welcoming lgbtphobes and racists so long as they stay out of trouble and are polite enough. I'll say it again: If a Nazi comes into your bar and you don't immediately nip it in the bud, they're going to feel comfortable and invite their friends. The regulars are going to come less and less often, because that obviously sucks. Now you run a Nazi bar.

I'm also seeing an uptick in disrespect for art/artists recently, one being the use of AI images. I really wish there was more of a push from staff to educate users on genAI and its unethicality, as well as an effort to keep AI images off the site completely - it's art theft, it's taking jobs from well-deserved artists, and it's killing the environment.
Re: the "effort" situation mentioned above, after that I feel like maybe the art events should only be ran by people with more of an arts background to avoid a similar situation from happening again. I don't think I've seen a more disrespectful string of comments toward artists on here, by a staff member no less, and now we learn that it was never formally addressed and there wasn't even an apology afterwards despite several artists expressing that they felt insulted.

On the complete other hand, the collectible market is essentially dead and it's near impossible to get any higher tier collectibles outside of raffles and rereleases. Everyone who wants them either has them already or can't afford them, and there aren't any viable ways to make tbt outside of maybe art, which a) not everyone can do and b) not everyone (very rightfully) wants to exchange art for niche forum images.
Selling other collectibles used to be the way to go about making bells, but now events introduce 20-30 new collectibles at a time without rewarding enough currency to buy more than either the one big fancy thing or the small handful that you want to keep. With nothing extra to sell and no way to make tbt barely anything surpasses a value of around 300 anymore. The creation of impostors made all of this even worse because people want (and want to) overpay for them.

On the topic of collectibles, and I'm being as vague as I can possibly be here, some people are actually, worryingly obsessed with them. It's gotten to the point where people will harass, scam, bribe, and lie for a little png. Please look in the mirror and seriously think about your priorities, like is it really worth it

A lot of tbt members themselves are great and very welcoming, but when that isn't reflected in the overall way a place is run it can only hold up so much before it crumbles.

 

[daringred_]

it's one of the better places online. i think it's improved in some ways and regressed in others. i like that there's no more limited stock on collectibles, i like that there was a recent collage event for those of us less artistically inclined, and i really appreciated the pride backdrops this month because those are something i've wanted for ages during june/the diversity event but didn't seem probable. that said, the response about lack of effort in the recent art event rubbed me the wrong way, especially as someone who's not very good at drawing, and whose entries probably look low effort for the hours and hours actually sunk into them. (it's partly why i didn't enter the valentine's one.) and the fact that there was no apology or formal address of it is also not great imo.

 

[-Apples-]

Eh...it ain't what it used to be.That's not necessarily the fault of the people who run this place but I'll get back to that.I think TBT is doing fairly well for a website that's been around as long as it has.There's still an active community here and generally the people here are decent and considerate.However,there are not nearly as many of those decent and considerate people that are still active here.When there's more people being active it means there's a better variety of personalities,opinions and general knowledge.A lot of members are no longer active,have simply given up on this place or have been asked to leave.When that happens a community gets whittled down to its core membership and core members tend to be mostly of the same mindset.There's nothing wrong with that but the sameness does make the place a lot less interesting to me.

It’s kinda sad that this forum has evolved into this. It used to be more about Animal Crossing, AC help, and AC online trading. In fact, that was the primary reason why I joined this site in the first place. I was here to publish information about my ACNL town of StarFall, as well as have a signature containing all three of my human characters. But now it’s no longer about that. It’s about collectibles and events. Additionally, many of the users I met very early during my membership have left or are hardly active anymore. Granted, they all have families or other responsibilities, but I still miss them and when they were active.

In regards to the art entries for winners to be selected, I kinda agree that the staff aren’t inclusive enough, as it always leads to the same people winning. That shouldn’t be a big deal if it’s the same people winning, but others should have a chance. For instance, if they have a line-art coloring event again, staff favorites should have more of a diversity, such as:

• Best use of gradient effects
• Best basic digital coloring (no gradient effects used)
• Best physical entry
• Most creative spin
• Best overall project

Hopefully, the users who never won an award will win awards, while the users who only won once or twice can win at least three awards throughout their entire membership.

 

[sleepey]

I’m mostly here for off-topic discussion but again, I stay away from controversial topics. I don’t think those kinds of things have a place on an Animal Crossing forum either.

if i may offer some like, kinda indirect but direct feedback on this, in a well-meaning way?

i notice that often, the people who express feeling excluded by the discussion of "controversial" topics and resulting "cliquey-ness" from the "favored side" actually tend to express individualistic opinions that negate or outright ignore the opinions expressed by those who are speaking to collectively-felt things going on on a "systemic" level, or at a larger scale, if that makes more sense. those expressing their opinions based just on personal experience often unknowingly come across as antagonistic for this reason, because it appears they are not meaningfully engaging with the overall situation at hand, which could be relevant to them, as well. i hope that doesn't invalidate feelings of victimization in situations like these, nor the real, complicated social dynamics they evoke.

slightly unrelated; i like @seliph 's example about the delay in getting transphobic/TERF rhetoric taken off the forums because of a lack of "clear" evidence that it's harmful (when the affected ppl know best that it is). similarly, if you express an opinion that is comparatively shortsighted and perhaps offensive to what other people experience, but don't see that you're "clearly" antagonizing them in any way, their reactions might seem confusing and leave one in a position of feeling excluded or victimized, when in fact, the individual might be the one doing harm. and in society at large, and what would naturally be favored in a micro-level like on an animal crossing forum run by people in the western world, is the individual. similarly, going back to the TERF example, the person expressing hateful, insidious rhetoric is favored. i don't think there's any shame in recognizing and correcting this, and that isn't to compare some of the "lighter" controversial topics on here to anything on the level of transphobia. but it might be helpful to understand how these situations play out

are these problems the fault of "controversial" topics being allowed on an animal crossing forum? no—i think it has everything to do with moderation and how people choose to understand current topics related to socioeconomic equity and how they affect people at large. i really appreciate that i can express this stuff here, and it makes for a more active userbase who inevitably want to discuss something related to stuff happening irl aside from animal crossing. it's just not realistic to limit it lol. we don't literally live in the microcosm of a video game with humanoid animal villagers

and croc (i'm sorry i don't remember your chosen name!!), if you want a space that is stricter with "controversial" topics, we both know where to go, and how that works out.

 

[azurill]

Overall I really like the community here. I have made so many amazing friends . I got back into drawing thanks to the events and I think I may have gotten a bit better because of them. I really enjoy drawing again.

I almost didn’t participate in the art portion this time just because of the effort situation. My drawings are not always very good but I try very hard on them. I did have fun with them just wasn’t sure they would be accepted.

It might be nice to have two different categories. One for more experienced artist’s and one for beginner/ amateur. I know I will never get a staff favorite on art just because mine will never be as good as all the amazing artist here and that’s not their fault. It would just be nice to have a chance.

 

[Cetoddle769]

Hi. It’s been a while. I recently signed up for Zelda Dungeon Forums with the same username I have now. (Joined on February 6) I’ve been so addicted and constantly needing to check the site that I abandoned you guys. It’s a lot kinder on here than it is on ZD. I’m so sorry for disappearing like that. Yesterday, I got into a major fight with a user on there that I’m friends with. Now I’m gonna be using this site more often. There’s no bullying, backhanded comments, and mean jokes. This site is a lot more regulated. Once again, I’m sorry for disappearing. I’m back now, and I’m not going anywhere.

-Cetoddle769

 

[Suguri]

I like it here! It's not perfect, but I still stick around because it just feels so cozy and my dear partner is on there. I have a comfortable space to share art and other creations without having to worry about the chaos of other sites like DeviantArt or Sketchers United (which is DeviantArt but smaller). Most of the people here are nice and I'd still feel insecure over my art like I was years ago if it weren't for them replying to my art thread and placing these cute reactions onto my posts. It's also useful if I want to get stuff for my ACNH island or ask questions about Animal Crossing, even though I don't play as often nowadays.

My cons: I just wish it was easier for us to get more TBT bells. I believe that was possible back then (although I wasn't there at the time) but they've cut down on it since. And more collectible reruns would be cool because we have too many of them already lol. Some posts here have set me off as well, but I won't talk too much about that.