Transparency

There is no global social feed on Best In Show. Each breeder storefront has its own Latest updates section showing that storefront's recent updates - new animals, new listings, new photos - sorted strictly by time, newest first. There is no engagement-based ranking, no "relevance" score, and no machine learning deciding what you see.

Watching

• Signed-in users can watch a storefront or an animal, or follow a breed, to record what they are interested in
• Watching sends you nothing today. The breeder sees only an anonymous count of how many people watch them
• Watching never changes how content is ranked, for you or for anyone else
• The notifications we do send are shown in chronological order and cover buyer inquiries, animal transfers, and being tagged in a photo or link

Search queries your typed terms against four content types: animals, storefronts, articles, and communities. Results are merged and ranked by a simple relevance score.

How results are ranked

Each result gets a score based on how well the name matches your query:

When results tie on relevance score, they are sub-sorted by content type in a fixed order: communities first, then animals, storefronts, and articles last. Within the same score and type, results are sorted alphabetically by name.

What fields are searched

• Animals: name, handle, breeder name (thin pedigree-record stubs are excluded)
• Storefronts: name, business name, handle
• Articles: title
• Communities: name

Featured breeders

Storefronts on a paid plan (Pro or Team) that match your query can appear in a clearly labeled featured breeders strip above the results. This strip is the only way a subscription affects search. The organic results themselves are never re-ranked, promoted, or suppressed based on payment.

Photo, link, animal, storefront, and article galleries are all sorted by date added (newest first) by default, and availability listings work the same way. There is no algorithmic curation or engagement-based promotion.

Alternative sort options

• Animals: newest, most photos, most descendants

Explore page

The Explore page shows a simple overview of recent content: the newest animals, photos, links, and articles, plus the community index. Everything is sorted by recency. Nothing is promoted or hidden.

Articles

The article listing page may feature one article at the top, chosen manually by site administrators. All other articles are shown in reverse chronological order.

When you view a photo, link, or article, you may see "related" content in the sidebar. Here is how it is selected:

• Related photos/links: Up to 4 other items from the same storefront, sorted by newest first.
• Related articles: Up to 3 articles that share the same animal type categories, sorted by newest first.

There is no collaborative filtering ("users who liked X also liked Y"), no engagement scoring, and no machine-learning recommendations. Related content is based entirely on explicit relationships: same author or shared categories.

We rely on community reporting to keep Best In Show safe and welcoming. Any logged-in user can report content they believe violates our guidelines.

How reporting works

• You can report photos, links, articles, and animal profiles by clicking the Report button on the content's page.
• When you report something, you choose a reason (spam, inappropriate content, harassment, misinformation, copyright violation, or other) and can optionally add details.
• You can only report each piece of content once. You cannot report your own content.

What happens after a report

• Every report is reviewed by a site administrator.
• If a piece of content receives 3 or more reports from different users, it is automatically hidden from public view until an administrator reviews it.
• Hidden content is not visible in galleries, search results, storefront pages, or to other users. Only the content owner can still see it, along with a notice explaining that it is under review.
• An administrator can dismiss the reports (making the content visible again) or approve them (keeping it hidden).

Transparency guarantees

• If your content is hidden, you will see a clear warning banner on it explaining why.
• We do not silently remove or suppress content. Hidden content is always visible to its owner with an explanation.
• Reports are never used to affect search ranking, gallery order, or any algorithmic sorting.

Best In Show connects breeders with real buyers. These measures exist to protect breeders from spam and automated abuse, so the inquiries you receive and the content you see are real.

Email verification

Some actions - like publishing articles and transferring animals between storefronts - require a verified email address. Adding animals and uploading photos does not - we want you to get started right away.

Invisible spam detection

We use industry-standard techniques (Cloudflare Turnstile and form-level checks) to detect automated bots. These are invisible to real users and do not collect personal data.

Rate limiting

To prevent flooding, there are limits on how many inquiries, uploads, and articles you can send or create in a short period. If you hit a limit, you'll see a friendly message explaining why. These limits are generous for normal use and only affect rapid-fire activity.

What we don't do

We don't use phone number verification, government ID checks, invite-only gates, or any system that requires you to prove your identity beyond a working email address.

As a breeder on Best In Show, you have full control over your content and how it appears on the platform. Here is what you can do:

Account and storefront

• Edit your storefront's name, location, and about information at any time
• Change or remove your storefront's profile photo
• Manage your email notification preferences (inquiries, tags, ancestry updates, general announcements)
• Delete your account

Your animals

• Add, edit, and delete animal profiles you own
• Manage pedigree relationships (add or remove parents and descendants)
• Remove your animal from another animal's pedigree (if someone added your animal as a parent or descendant)

Photos and links

• Upload and delete your own photos and links
• Untag your storefront or your animals from any photo or link
• As a media owner, remove any tag from your photos and links

Articles

• Create, edit, and delete your articles
• Remove photos from your articles (the photo itself is not deleted, only the link)
• Manage cover photos on your articles

Inquiries

• Buyer inquiries go straight to your inbox - conversations are private between you and the buyer
• You choose whether and how to respond; we never share inquiry threads with anyone else

Watching and saving

• Watch and unwatch storefronts and animals freely
• Save and unsave content - saves are private bookmarks
• Report content that violates our guidelines
• Watches and saves are shown to breeders only as anonymous counts in their analytics - they are never named to anyone

• No engagement-based ranking. We don't boost content based on views, saves, or time spent viewing. Everything is sorted by time or explicit relevance.
• No behavioral tracking for recommendations. We don't track which pages you linger on, what you scroll past, or build a behavioral profile to feed an algorithm.
• No hidden paid promotion. Paid plans get exactly one visibility perk, and it is labeled: Pro and Team storefronts can appear in the "featured breeders" strip on search results. Organic search results and galleries are never re-ranked by payment. We display third-party ads (Google AdSense) to support the site, but these are clearly separate from breeder content and never affect how it is ranked or displayed.
• No shadow banning. We never secretly hide your content while making it look visible to you. If your content is hidden due to community reports, you will see a clear warning banner explaining why. See Content moderation above for full details.
• No data selling. We don't sell your personal information, activity data, or content to third parties.
• No infinite scroll tricks. While galleries use infinite scroll for convenience, there is no algorithmic re-ordering, injection of suggested content, or other patterns designed to maximize time on site.

This page reflects how Best In Show works today. As the platform evolves, we will keep this page updated. If our algorithms ever become more complex, you will find the explanation here.