Frequently Asked Questions

Before you e-mail us with questions, please check this page. Have a question that hasn't been answered here or on the rules page? Send it in and we'll add it to this section! :)

For New*bees

For Members

General

 

Answers

Who runs the q*bee?
The q*bee club is run by a whole hive of dedicated bees, as listed on the staff page!

What do I do if I want to join?
The best place to start is the join section. :)

How do I trade patches?
You e-mail a bee with your details and some information about yourself and they send a return e-mail with their info. If you'd like more information, check the rules page in the "regarding trading" section.

Where do I put my quilt?
You must have your own website in order to be in the q*bee. You simply add a subpage on to your site (quilt.html for example), and make sure your quilt page is easily accessible to your visitors. Please don't hide it so deep in your page that it is impossible to find. This is unfair to other members who will be visiting your website when they want to trade patches with you. Generally your quilt should be no more than 3 clicks from your main page, and under a clearly marked link.

Can you make me a patch?
Sorry, no. Your patch should be something that you create all on your own, it's much more special that way. :)

Where's the submit form? I can't find it!
If you read and completed all three sections in the join section, you'll find it. Trust us. :) We admit that we've had to bury it a bit deep, because if we don't, some people tend to skip right to it to submit before they've made a patch/quilt page or anything.

How do I download and use the 'starter quilt page' template?
The template can be found on the downloads page. Click the link, save it to your computer, and use a program like Winzip to unzip it. The zip file comes with a read me file with further instructions.

How many quilts can I have?
One quilt per person, please.

Can I use a form on my quilt page?
Yes, you may, but please send yourself a test mail to make sure it's working properly. Please also have a comments section so that members can tell you a bit about themselves.

Will you e-mail me if my site is accepted?
Yes, you will be sent a generic acceptance letter, a membership patch with your own unique member #, and a giant box full of chocolate chip cookies (well, just kidding about the cookies). ;)

How long till I hear back from you?
If you've been accepted, you'll hear back from us within about two weeks — usually on a Sunday. Sometimes we mail bees if we think they're really close to being accepted too. :) If you don't hear back to use, please review your site and our rules then try again!

Will you e-mail me if my site is rejected?
If we like your site but there's just a small problem, like a broken image or a problem with your quilt, yes, we'll write to tell you what needs to be fixed before we can accept you. But if your site doesn't meet the requirements because of major reasons then we likely won't. Unfortunately, time is a factor as we get a lot of mail! :9

Why don't you let everyone in?
With the number of submissions that we receive, if we let every single person in, the bee would have thousands of members by now and it would be totally unmanagable. By being selective, we hope to keep the q*bee a bit more intimate and in doing so, maintainable and fun to click around through. Remember that if your submission is rejected, it doesn't mean that your site is BAD, it just means that it's not up to our standards, so please don't take it personally or get upset by it. Who cares what we think anyway? :P

Why won't you accept sites on Geocities?
It's not because of the ad banners, it's because many members have trouble viewing Geocities at all. Something to do with firewalls and ad blockers.. Geocities sites just view as blank pages.

Why was I rejected?
Bees are generally rejected for the following common reasons:

Of course, sometimes bees think they're rejected when they're not. Bees are processed a few at a time each week, just because people have been added since you applied doesn't mean you weren't accepted!

I've moved. Where do I update my info?
In your special profile area. :) Bees don't need to notify the staff anymore, just keep your profile up to date.

Where can I find the little horoscope patches and stuff?
In the free*bees area :)

Can I donate graphics?
Of course! :) There's a form in the free*bees section where you can upload them yourself.

Nobody ever asks me to trade. :( What do I do?
The best way to get more trades is to build a beautiful quilt and to take the time to visit other member's sites and ask them yourself! Don't be shy. :) Also, put as much effort into your patch as possible, this way people will be more likely to want to collect your patch to sew onto their quilts.

My name was on the member's list, but now it's not! What happened?
If your name has been unlinked or removed from the member list, don't panic! :) We work extremely hard (the queen/worker bees) to keep the member list as current & up to date as possible. What this means is that we remove inactive members, sites that have disappeared, etc. We don't do this to be mean, we do this to try to keep things organized. All bees are sent warnings if we spot problems, but if you think you've been removed in error please contact us.

What do I do with patches that lead to dead links/former members?
It's up to you to keep your quilt washed and tidy. :) Whenever you're bored, why not run through your quilt and weed out all the patches that lead to dead sites or to people who are no longer on the member list? It's entirely up to you, you can leave the old patches there or you can clean it up .. we're fine with it either way.

Can I reject trade requests?
Of course you may, it's your page and it's your quilt! :) But please be kind when doing so.

I've moved. Do I notify everyone that I've traded with?
It's up to you, you can either mail everyone that you've traded patches with, or you can leave a note on your old site notifying everyone of your new address. Another option is to post your new address in the "change of honeycomb" forum on the bee*bee*s. As long as you keep your profile up to date though, everyone will find your new URL eventually.

I tried to trade but the bee didn't reply, what do I do?
Wait a few weeks and try again, and if they still don't reply, just move on to another member (there are up to 350, so this should be no problem). They may not like your patch, or your page, and they are simply ignoring you because they don't want to hurt your feelings. Though if you ever suspect that a member is not trading at all, you can always write to us to let us know and we'll check it out.

How do the "Bee of the week" nominations work?
Everytime we receive one, we write the bee's member # down on an itty bitty piece of paper, ball it up, and put it in a box. Every Sunday, the box is shaken up and two numbers are pulled at random. Some times the Queen Bee also picks bees she feels have contributed massively in that week. So basically, everybody that's nominated will receive a Bee of the week award ..eventually! Since we can only give out two a week it just takes time. :)

How can I get my own Honeycomb Apartment?
The Honeycomb Apartments are for members that have been in the bee for a year or more. If you've passed your one year mark, please visit the residents page for more info!

What are the different bee-issued patches?
See the patch info page for details.

How can I become a worker bee?
Please check the volunteering page for requirements.

What are honeybees?
Honeybees form a panel of several bees that help by voting yes/no on pending member submissions. They decide who gets to join the club and who doesn't based on the rules and their personal judgement. If you want to be a honeybee, check the volunteering page for requirements.

Can I participate in a closed event?
You may apply for any activity while it is open. However once the activity closes and you missed out, please do not create activity graphics to trade. Once the activity closes it is closed to everyone that did not join in the event. It is unfair to the bees that did participate in the event. Any acceptions to this rule will be specifically marked on the activity page.

What does washing your quilt mean?
Washing your quilt just means cleaning up your quilt: going through and deleting or moving the retired bees, keeping your trade log in order, updating links, making sure that there are no broken images or links. If you keep your quilt washed someone may nominate you for a Cozy Quilt Award!

"How do I .."
Athough we try to answer common questions in our tutorials and will help out members at the bee*bee*s, we don't have the time to reply to all of your how to e-mails. Try searching with google :)

Can I start a club like the Quilting Bee?
We don't support copiers (who does?) but we don't hunt them down, either. Lets just say that we would really appreciate it if you thought of something on your own rather then stealing our idea and reusing it, and I'm sure your page visitors would appreciate your creativity as well.

How can I help the Quilting Bee?
There are lots of ways you can show your support for the club, and you don't have to spend a penny! Firstly, the club wouldn't be the same without its members, so the best way to help is to refer your friends. For each bee you refer, you'll receive 10 bee points, as well as the knowledge that you're helping us expand. You can also help by telling people about the quilting bee — link to us from your website, add us to your del.icio.us accounts, whatever you can think of to get us out there. Of course, the best way to help is by bee*ing active and sending in submissions to our activities.

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