club rules - the * quilting * bee

Official Club Rules

If you have any questions please check the FAQ before contacting us. :)

Your Trading Patch
You may only have one patch for trading. If you get bored with it and want to redesign it, you may do so at any time. If you do, then let us know so we can ooh and ahh over it. :D You can also email the bees you've traded with about your new patch so they can update their quilts! Patches must be exactly 40 x 40 pixels. This is so everyone's quilts look nice and neat and not lop-sided! ;) Patches must be in GIF or PNG format. We like to keep all images consistent and small in file size! Trading patches cannot be animated. This rule does not apply to activity entries, where animation is usually allowed. Patches should have some kind of "stitching". Your patch should be on a transparent background with "stitching", no solid border. Learn more about patches »

Your Trading Patch

You may only have one patch for trading.
If you get bored with it and want to redesign it, you may do so at any time. If you do, then let us know so we can ooh and ahh over it. :D You can also email the bees you've traded with about your new patch so they can update their quilts!
Patches must be exactly 40 x 40 pixels.
This is so everyone's quilts look nice and neat and not lop-sided! ;)
Patches must be in GIF or PNG format.
We like to keep all images consistent and small in file size!
Trading patches cannot be animated.
This rule does not apply to activity entries, where animation is usually allowed.
Patches should have some kind of "stitching".
Your patch should be on a transparent background with "stitching", no solid border.
Learn more about patches »

Trading Etiquette
Only trade with official Quilting Bee members. All official members are listed here. If you happen to visit a site that has a quilt but the person isn't on the members list, they are probably a retired bee and cannot be traded with. Complete the trade before adding patches to your quilt. Please do not add another member's patch to your quilt unless you have both finished exchanging patches. Otherwise it will be considered "patch grabbing", which is not fun. :( Reply to trade requests! Do not assume that if someone sends you a request they've already added you to their quilt. Usually they are waiting on a reply from you to complete the trade! Please wash your quilt regularly! This keeps your quilt free of broken links and retired bees. Learn more about trading etiquette »

Trading Etiquette

Only trade with official Quilting Bee members.
All official members are listed here. If you happen to visit a site that has a quilt but the person isn't on the members list, they are probably a retired bee and cannot be traded with.
Complete the trade before adding patches to your quilt.
Please do not add another member's patch to your quilt unless you have both finished exchanging patches. Otherwise it will be considered "patch grabbing", which is not fun. :(
Reply to trade requests!
Do not assume that if someone sends you a request they've already added you to their quilt. Usually they are waiting on a reply from you to complete the trade!
Please wash your quilt regularly!
This keeps your quilt free of broken links and retired bees.
Learn more about trading etiquette »

Your Quilt

Your Quilt
Your quilt must be located on the web: Allowed: Personal domains, subdomains, Tumblr, Blogger, Blogspot, Wordpress.com, LiveJournal, and other free hosting or blog/journal sites that don't cover pages with lots of advertising and popups. Not Allowed: Commercial sites, communities/forums, groups, profiles on myspace/facebook/neopets/deviantart, etc The first 3 patches on your quilt should be: The current official club patch, linked to the Quilting Bee. Your current trading patch, pixeled by you. The current patch for your bee number. Required patches should either be displayed along with your member quilt OR in a prominent place, like on the index page or in a sidebar on your quilt, and not on an inner page (unless the inner page is your quilt). How you arrange the rest of your patches is up to you. :) Need to see an approved quilt example? Please keep a version of the following text on your quilt: I'm an official Quilting Bee member! If you are also a member and would like to trade patches, please email me. Don't forget to include this information: your patch, your membership # and your URL. If you're not a member, please click the first patch on my quilt for info on how to join! You can modify this text if you like, but make sure that: Members know where to contact you for a trade (whether by email or trade form, etc) Visitors know where to click (ie. the first patch) if they want to join the club! Your quilt page must be easy for us to find. It should be no more than 3 clicks away from your main index page with a clearly marked link or bee button. If your quilt is one-click away, you can grab a one-click cookie!	Your quilt must be located on it's own page. So not on a sidebar, footer, header, or other secondary element on your site. Give your quilt a home! :3 If you use pop-up windows or iframes, it must be a viewable size. Meaning your quilt layout must fit nicely inside the frame so it's easy to browse! Do not direct link patches. Make sure you upload all received patches to your own server! Direct linking leads to quilts full of holes, and nobody wants a moth-eaten quilt! Collected patches should be linked to the bee's website. Be sure to use `border="0"` (or in your stylesheet: `img { border: 0; }`) when you link, and if your quilt is inside frames or a pop-up window, be sure to use a `target="_blank"` on each link so bees' websites will display outside the frame. You must maintain a trading log with clear dates of your latest trades. Please make dates on logs clear (e.g. 03/04/09 is not obvious whether or not it means 4th march or 3rd april) and make them easily accessible to workerbees via your quilt. Example of a clear trade log: Hanna #298 on Jan 9th, 2011 Jem #123 on Dec 12th, 2010 Melissa #188 on Nov 22nd, 2010 You can use any format you wish as long as the month name is spelled out and not a number so for example, "January" and "Jan" are ok but not "01" or "1". If you are using the myQuiltAdmin script, you can change dates by logging into your admin, going to "Profile" and scrolling down to "Date Format". Change it to something like M jS in the date format box. You can see other abbreviations here. All sections of your quilt must be in English or have translated versions. We definitely don't discriminate or reject anyone from a different culture or country, however since the majority of our members speak English we must request that each page of your quilt be in that language or a translation is present. This is so bees can get to know you better and that's the point of our club! :D Learn more about quilts »

Your quilt must be located on the web:
- Allowed: Personal domains, subdomains, Tumblr, Blogger, Blogspot, Wordpress.com, LiveJournal, and other free hosting or blog/journal sites that don't cover pages with lots of advertising and popups.
- Not Allowed: Commercial sites, communities/forums, groups, profiles on myspace/facebook/neopets/deviantart, etc
The first 3 patches on your quilt should be:
- The current official club patch, linked to the Quilting Bee.
- Your current trading patch, pixeled by you.
- The current patch for your bee number.
Required patches should either be displayed along with your member quilt OR in a prominent place, like on the index page or in a sidebar on your quilt, and not on an inner page (unless the inner page is your quilt). How you arrange the rest of your patches is up to you. :) Need to see an approved quilt example?
Please keep a version of the following text on your quilt:
I'm an official Quilting Bee member! If you are also a member and would like to trade patches, please email me. Don't forget to include this information: your patch, your membership # and your URL. If you're not a member, please click the first patch on my quilt for info on how to join! You can modify this text if you like, but make sure that:
- Members know where to contact you for a trade (whether by email or trade form, etc)
- Visitors know where to click (ie. the first patch) if they want to join the club!
Your quilt page must be easy for us to find.
It should be no more than 3 clicks away from your main index page with a clearly marked link or bee button. If your quilt is one-click away, you can grab a one-click cookie!

Your quilt must be located on it's own page.
So not on a sidebar, footer, header, or other secondary element on your site. Give your quilt a home! :3
If you use pop-up windows or iframes, it must be a viewable size.
Meaning your quilt layout must fit nicely inside the frame so it's easy to browse!
Do not direct link patches.
Make sure you upload all received patches to your own server! Direct linking leads to quilts full of holes, and nobody wants a moth-eaten quilt!
Collected patches should be linked to the bee's website.
Be sure to use border="0" (or in your stylesheet: img { border: 0; }) when you link, and if your quilt is inside frames or a pop-up window, be sure to use a target="_blank" on each link so bees' websites will display outside the frame.
You must maintain a trading log with clear dates of your latest trades.
Please make dates on logs clear (e.g. 03/04/09 is not obvious whether or not it means 4th march or 3rd april) and make them easily accessible to workerbees via your quilt. Example of a clear trade log:
- Hanna #298 on Jan 9th, 2011
- Jem #123 on Dec 12th, 2010
- Melissa #188 on Nov 22nd, 2010
You can use any format you wish as long as the month name is spelled out and not a number so for example, "January" and "Jan" are ok but not "01" or "1". If you are using the myQuiltAdmin script, you can change dates by logging into your admin, going to "Profile" and scrolling down to "Date Format". Change it to something like M jS in the date format box. You can see other abbreviations here.
All sections of your quilt must be in English or have translated versions.
We definitely don't discriminate or reject anyone from a different culture or country, however since the majority of our members speak English we must request that each page of your quilt be in that language or a translation is present. This is so bees can get to know you better and that's the point of our club! :D
Learn more about quilts »

BeeBeeS & Chatroom
BBS topics must be kept to the appropriate forums. If you're unsure of where to post something, stick it in the "QBee Tea Party" board, which is a general catch-all. The Queen will move it to the right place, if needed. No spamming!* Don't post tons of topics or multiple replies to a thread in order to beef up your post count or to bother other bees. In the chatroom, don't post a bunch of messages at a time in excess. *No excessive* smiley use. You're free to use the smilies provided to add emotion to your posts and mesages, but over the top use (like 20 in a row) is not allowed. Single word + one smiley replies on the BBS are generally discouraged because how is that really a contribution to the discussion? ;) No excessive chat speak or abbreviations. For bees who's native language is not English, this can only add confusion. No excessive profanity. You don't really need to censor yourself, but please don't go crazy with swearing. Keep things PG-13ish! Beenice to fellow bees!* While we don't discourage debates or serious discussions, any petty arguments or name-calling is prohibited. Please be considerate when replying to other members. No soliciting or advertising of any kind! You may NOT solicit for money or donations on the BBS or in the chatroom unless is it in a topic, board, or channel that permits it. This also goes for profile bios and BBS signatures. Learn more about the BBS »

Bee*Bee*S & Chatroom

BBS topics must be kept to the appropriate forums.
If you're unsure of where to post something, stick it in the "Q*Bee Tea Party" board, which is a general catch-all. The Queen will move it to the right place, if needed.
No spamming!
Don't post tons of topics or multiple replies to a thread in order to beef up your post count or to bother other bees. In the chatroom, don't post a bunch of messages at a time in excess.
No excessive smiley use.
You're free to use the smilies provided to add emotion to your posts and mesages, but over the top use (like 20 in a row) is not allowed. Single word + one smiley replies on the BBS are generally discouraged because how is that really a contribution to the discussion? ;)
No excessive chat speak or abbreviations.
For bees who's native language is not English, this can only add confusion.
No excessive profanity.
You don't really need to censor yourself, but please don't go crazy with swearing. Keep things PG-13ish!
Bee*nice to fellow bees!
While we don't discourage debates or serious discussions, any petty arguments or name-calling is prohibited. Please be considerate when replying to other members.
No soliciting or advertising of any kind!
You may NOT solicit for money or donations on the BBS or in the chatroom unless is it in a topic, board, or channel that permits it. This also goes for profile bios and BBS signatures.
Learn more about the BBS »

Activities
Follow the activity's rules. Each activity has its own set of rules that are listed next to its upload form. Make sure your entry meets each and every requirement before submitting, which will save us (and you!) a lot of time spent needing to fix mistakes afterward. Entries must be PIXELED unless otherwise stated. Please only submit valid pixel art, unless the activity is a non-pixeling one. This is a pixel club after all! So please do not submit vectors or resized images. While pixeling, watch your "pillow shading". While we don't judge pixeling skill level at all, we at least expect members to keep their entries clean and the edges free of blurry anti-aliasing or "pillow shading": One of the major crimes of shading pixel art is pillow shading, a poor replacement for anti-aliasing. Pillow shading is where a number of progressive shades just run parallel to the edge of a sprite. This approach to shading looks terrible whenever it is used, so it must be avoided at all times. ~ Via Introduction to Pixel Art NO CHEATING! Your entries must be 100% made by you! This means you cannot use a base or another pixel image made by someone else (unless noted in the activity, there are no other exceptions). We consider this to be art theft and cheating and do not tolerate it one bit. This means no using uncolored bases (even if you purchased them) made by someone else and no modifying other images. 3 strikes, you're out. Each time you are caught cheating, you will be issued a warning and be allowed to send in a replacement. If this happens more than three times, you will be banned from participating in the current activity. If you attempt to cheat again in another activity, you will be retired from the club. We do not tolerate cheating. Learn more about our activities »

Activities

Follow the activity's rules.
Each activity has its own set of rules that are listed next to its upload form. Make sure your entry meets each and every requirement before submitting, which will save us (and you!) a lot of time spent needing to fix mistakes afterward.
Entries must be PIXELED unless otherwise stated.
Please only submit valid pixel art, unless the activity is a non-pixeling one. This is a pixel club after all! So please do not submit vectors or resized images.
While pixeling, watch your "pillow shading".
While we don't judge pixeling skill level at all, we at least expect members to keep their entries clean and the edges free of blurry anti-aliasing or "pillow shading":
One of the major crimes of shading pixel art is pillow shading, a poor replacement for anti-aliasing. Pillow shading is where a number of progressive shades just run parallel to the edge of a sprite. This approach to shading looks terrible whenever it is used, so it must be avoided at all times. ~ Via Introduction to Pixel Art
NO CHEATING! Your entries must be 100% made by you!
This means you cannot use a base or another pixel image made by someone else (unless noted in the activity, there are no other exceptions). We consider this to be art theft and cheating and do not tolerate it one bit. This means no using uncolored bases (even if you purchased them) made by someone else and no modifying other images.
3 strikes, you're out.
Each time you are caught cheating, you will be issued a warning and be allowed to send in a replacement. If this happens more than three times, you will be banned from participating in the current activity. If you attempt to cheat again in another activity, you will be retired from the club. We do not tolerate cheating.
Learn more about our activities »