"The Dogs Must Flow. Come for the dogs, stay for the sport and community. We are not a cult."

Dogspotting is a rather odd cultural phenomenon. The premise behind it is very clear –– take photos of unknown dogs that you see in public, post said photos to a Facebook group (text posts are also allowed) and then reap the benefits of imaginary points. The popularity and culture surrounding it, slightly less so. The group currently boasts an astounding 240,000 members, has an app currently in beta testing, and has expanded into both Twitter and Instagram. The group has also developed its own vocabulary, an attribute generally thought to signify the divergence of populations. Terms such as doggo (dog), floof (overally fluffy dog), bork (bark) and pupper (ambiguous word –– normally used to signify a puppy or small dog but not concretely defined) pervade the group. To gain a better understanding of the past, present and future of Dogspotting, I had a conversation with three administrators of the extremely popular Facebook group.

John Savoia: The creator and first administrator of Dogspotting

Jeff Wallen: Officially the "Director of Dog Organization, Director of Dog Social Media, Co-Director of Dog Legal Affairs." Head administrator

Megan Kipperman: General administrator with two years of Dogspotting experience

How did you get to become an admin? Why did you want to become one?

Megan: "So I joined Dogspotting in 2014 after the 'What Is Dogspotting And Why Are People So Angry About It?' article came out. I was a casual spotter, then. As time went on I became more active. I reported posts to admins when necessary, gently guided to rules, and what really got the attention of the Elder Council was when I created the Spot Flow Chart. I'd been seeing a lot of spots, so I made a little flowchart that's currently in the documents. From there, Jeff added me. He asked me to send the pdf to the dog spotting email, and then slowly but surely other admins were adding me. I was first approached to do logistics stuff like that, but then they decided they'd like me on the team. I was inducted around the same time as Ralp Owens."

Jeff: "Dogspotting has a long and storied past, some say into the past as far as the Late Eastern Roman Empire, some even say that cave drawing as early as 15,000 years ago depict dog spots. Those are legends and rumors whispered in the darkness. What I can tell you for certain is the details of the last decade.

In 2006, John A. Savoia posted a thread in a subforum of the Something Awful forums. That thread was about Dogspotting. This little subforum, called FYAD, gave birth to quite a bit of modern internet culture. Many of the current admins and people influential in the Dogspotting community are from that forum. John, Reid, David Thorpe (son of Coco Thorpe), Timotei Bruce, Carl Jenkins, Ralp Owens, Kevin Doherty, Josh Boruff (The Bad Man) and I, all sharpened our teeth there. I jokingly call it Troll College. It was a very influential incubator for what has become modern comedy and culture on the Internet. The Dogspotting thread there went on for years, even after the creation of the Facebook group, which was created in 2008. The Facebook group mostly lingered, inactive. I myself dropped out of it for some time. After its later boost in popularity, John and Reid Paskiewicz brought me back in to help admin the group. The FYAD thread was eventually archived, but the Facebook group lives on, stronger every day. We are laying the foundations for expansion beyond that for the future as well."

Was there a point when you realized how popular the group was becoming?

John: "In the summer of 2014, after years of there being only a dozen or two members, none of which (myself included) were active, membership started to skyrocket. I still have no idea who the first person to join and start drawing in strangers was, a so-called dogspotter-x if you will, but that’s how the ball got rolling."

Jeff: "Yes, when Buzzfeed released its initial article in Fall 2014. We had been rapidly growing in the months before that point, but it was then that we said 'Hey we have something here we could make something out of.' At that point we realized we had to clean house and revamp the sport to maximize potential of what Dogspotting was supposed to be. I think we ended up wiping out about 25% of the group to weed out undesired elements through a manufactured upheaval, and rewrote the rules to be more complacent to the general public and envisioned a long reaching plan for the future in what was called The Big Plan. It is working out great. We are currently in Phase III of the Big Plan."

Does the popularity still surprise you?

John: "Frankly, the popularity does and doesn’t surprise me. It surprises me that a silly head-game I made a FB group for would grow to have 230K members, but at the same time, social media and social connectivity along with online cute culture really is the perfect storm, and Dogspotting is riding the lightning all the way down, baby!"

Jeff: "Not at all. It is genius in its simplicity. It's easy for people to grasp, entertaining to both witness others participate in and participate in yourself, and enables everyone to interact as a community doing something they all enjoy."

Can you tell me any interesting details about how the group is run? I think most people don’t have a clear idea of what “dog spotting court” is, or what admins do beyond remove posts.

John: "There really aren’t that many secrets to the group administration, we are upfront (extremely) about the rules and how we enforce them, we strive to be transparent about changes and updates, and address the group directly when we feel it’s necessary. The current admin list is kept updated. As for the DPC, that is as plain as day a meditation for people who wish to have their day in court, everything plays out live in the posts and comments, there’s nothing going on behind the scenes."

Megan: “Like most groups, we have an admin group chat. We also have a log for infractions, because with a large group we can't remember what Random Member 1 did to get banned but we wanna make sure that they are telling us the truth when they reach out to us. Before the Court, members would just message admins to be re-admitted. Due to how Facebook messenger works, it's difficult for us to parse through our filtered messages and message requests (especially on mobile) and reach out to each person. The Court was then created for disputes. Our group chat for infractions is referred to as The Farm, so when people are warned of the rules/banned/etc they're literally in The Farm. Other than remove posts, we do our best to keep the peace. We check out what may be causing problems, or what may be a popular post to give it Admin Accolades. People really like when we get involved with their posts, so we do our best to interact. We also deem Top Spots with an MVP sticker and keep those in a folder for the end of the year when we have members vote for The Top Spot of The Year, which results in The Big Prizes. We organize small things, like the bounties, and make important announcements that we have to bump whenever relevant (such as the service dog rule post).”

Do the admins actually keep track of all of the points for every member of the group? With 200,000+ members and posts every 10 minutes I don’t see how that could be feasible. Is there a lower limit for points where you begin to keep track?

Megan: “Spotters are responsible for keeping track of their own points. In Elite Dogspotting, those points are counted in the posts and many members do, actually, keep track. The Big Prize in EDS is calculated by points. With the app, there will be a leaderboard so there actually WILL be an official count.”

Jeff: "Members should be keeping their own points in a personal Dog Log. As of now we do award a Big Prize to the member who gets the best Top Spot of the year. Top Spots are determined by admins picking out great spots throughout the year. Then, in December we gather them together and let the members vote for the best one. 2016 will probably be the last year we do it that way. Starting next year all of the point logging will be automatic by using the Dogspotting App and Website. The game element of Dogspotting will be automated through use of our technology. The Facebook group will always be there, but the Dogspotting experience will expand beyond that."

How much time do you spend per week working for the group? Does this function as a full-time job for you or is it more of a (very very popular) hobby?

John: "At this point I have taken a back seat in day to day moderation, both because we have such a talented and dedicated team of admins and moderators whose passion makes Dogspotting the success it is today, and because, frankly, I’m the idea guy, the visionary, the bon vivant of Dogspotting. I’ve been likened to the Satoshi Nakamoto of Dogspotting as well, and perhaps there is some truth to that."

Jeff: "I'd say 30-40 hours a week on average. It is most definitely a full time job for me, on top of my current full time job in which I work an average of around 60 hours a week. I've always been a workaholic. I like to stay busy."

The group has expanded to include apparel and has an app in development. Where do you see the group headed in the future?

Megan: “I'm definitely excited for The Big Plans to come. Now that we've executed The Big Plan (Phase II) which was app development, we'll be able to work on getting actual merchandise going. Honestly I'm just really excited to see us expand with our fanbase. We're an LLC and our logo is trademarked now, so we're certainly becoming More Official. I don't want to say the next step is world domination, but I'll leave it at we are not a cult.”

Jeff: "Right now I see us expanding the community through the app and website into a true global community. People from all over the world use the Facebook Group every day. I have seen a noted uptick in Central and South America, and also Japan. Facebook is limited in its scope of member interaction. When people start using the Dogspotting App and Website it will open a lot of doors in how we interact with members, and more importantly how they can interact with each other. The Facebook group is on the verge of having a quarter of a million members. We gain around 8,000 new members a week. This will be the foundation of our global Dogspotting community, the influx of members from around the planet."

Has anyone tried to pay for ads in the group or pay to be an admin? It would give them direct advertising to almost 200,000 people, so I would be shocked if it hasn't happened at least once.

Jeff: "Yes, on both counts. We can't do that on Facebook. We just don't allow ads in the group. We have worked too long and hard building the group to let people ride on our coattails and profit from our work. As far as admins go... If someone asks to be an admin, they will probably be a horrible admin. As a rule, if someone asks to be an admin, they probably want it for the wrong reasons, and asking for it automatically takes them out of the list of people we would consider. We are VERY picky when it comes to letting someone into the fold."

What are your all-time favorite spots?

John: "My personal favorite dogspot if from the early days of the boom... fall 2014, I believe. It is a haggard old pooch, a pug, graying hair, tired droopy eyes. They sit on an old ratty pillow on the ground, one leg out. A strange pose for a dog, but there is more. Next to the pillow is a turd, assuredly the turd of the very dog who now resides next to it. It's not the highest scoring spot of all time, but it is the one I see when I close my eyes at night."

Megan: “Oh man. So many good ones. There's the classic turdpug, who is featured on the t-shirt we were giving out as a perk for the GoFundMe. She's a classic. There's also fat greyhound, the original viral artspot. I think my recent favorite has been the dinner roll/gnocchi dog."

The Famed Turdpug

Do you personally own any dogs?

John: "Actually, I'm a cat person."

Jeff: " I do. I have a 2 1/2 year old Komondor named Heimdallr. He is my main man and my life wouldn't be the same without him."

Heimdallr