WeRateDogs
{{short description|Twitter dog-related account}}
{{Infobox website
| name = WeRateDogs (@dog_rates)
| logo =
| logocaption =
| screenshot =
| collapsible =
| collapsetext =
| caption =
| url = {{URL|https://twitter.com/dog_rates}}
| commercial =
| type = Twitter account
| registration =
| language = English
| num_users =
| content_license =
| owner =
| author =
| launch_date = {{start date and age|2015|11|15}}
| alexa =
| revenue =
| current_status = Online
| footnotes =
}}
WeRateDogs is a Twitter account that rates people's dogs with a humorous comment about the dog. The account was started in 2015 by college student Matt Nelson, and has received international media attention both for its popularity and for the attention drawn to social media copyright law when it was suspended by Twitter based on false Digital Millennium Copyright Act complaints.
History
Nelson, a golf management major at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina, was inspired by Weird Twitter and had amassed a 10,000-person following on his personal Twitter account.{{Cite news|url=http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a54940/we-rate-dogs-matt-nelson-interview/|title=How WeRateDogs Turned a Pet Project Into Profit|date=2017-05-15|work=Esquire|access-date=2017-05-15|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170516133333/http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a54940/we-rate-dogs-matt-nelson-interview/|archive-date=2017-05-16|url-status=live}} In 2015, he and a friend were at an Applebee's, when he set up a Twitter poll from his personal account asking if he should create a dog rating account; the positive response led him to create the account, which combines cute animals with irreverent snark.
WeRateDogs asks people to send photos of their dogs, then tweets selected photos rating and a humorous comment. Dogs are rated on a scale of one to ten, but are invariably given ratings in excess of the maximum, such as "13/10". Popular posts are re-posted on Instagram and Facebook.{{Cite news|url=https://nymag.com/selectall/2015/12/this-weird-twitter-account-will-rate-your-dog.html|title=This Weird Dog-Rating Twitter Account Gets 10/10|work=nymag.com|access-date=2017-05-15|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170314012249/http://nymag.com/selectall/2015/12/this-weird-twitter-account-will-rate-your-dog.html|archive-date=2017-03-14|url-status=live}} In 2017, Nelson started a spin-off Twitter account, Thoughts of Dog.
The account also has a branded game, an online store, and a book published in fall 2017.{{Cite news|title=#WeRateDogs: The Most Hilarious and Adorable Pups You've Ever Seen|work=Amazon.com|language=en|isbn = 978-1786853486 |last1=Nelson |first1=Matt |date=14 September 2017 }} Nelson and his team of four receive 800 to 1,000 submissions daily and work to narrow them down to about one high-quality piece of dog content per day.{{cite web |last1=Anwar |first1=Mehak |title=WeRateDogs' Matt Nelson Is Responsible For The Captions On Your Favorite Dog Photos |date=13 March 2019 |url=https://www.elitedaily.com/p/weratedogs-matt-nelson-is-responsible-for-the-captions-on-your-favorite-dog-photos-15959821 |publisher=Elite Daily |accessdate=31 December 2019}}
Impact
As of December 2020, the Twitter account had nearly 9 million followers,{{Cite news|url=https://www.salon.com/2017/10/01/the-founder-of-weratedogs-on-being-a-professional-dog-rater/|title=The founder of "WeRateDogs" on building a doggo empire|access-date=2017-10-02|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171002020209/https://www.salon.com/2017/10/01/the-founder-of-weratedogs-on-being-a-professional-dog-rater/|archive-date=2017-10-02|url-status=live}} and Nelson sees 30,000 likes on a post as being viral. His most popular post was of a dog marching in the 2017 Women's March, which was retweeted more than 50,000 times and favorited 134,000 times.
The account's language helped to popularise the "DoggoLingo" Internet language that refers to dogs as doggos and puppers.{{Cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/04/23/524514526/dogs-are-doggos-an-internet-language-built-around-love-for-the-puppers|title=Dogs Are Doggos: An Internet Language Built Around Love For The Puppers|work=NPR.org|access-date=2017-05-15|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170515082929/http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/04/23/524514526/dogs-are-doggos-an-internet-language-built-around-love-for-the-puppers|archive-date=2017-05-15|url-status=live}} A 2016 interaction with another Twitter user, when Nelson purposefully misnamed him "Brent" as is common in Weird Twitter, spawned the catchphrase "They're good dogs, Brent", which became one of the biggest memes of 2016.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2017/01/05/how-an-online-fight-about-dogs-became-one-of-2016s-greatest-memes/|title=How an online fight about dogs became one of 2016's greatest memes|last1=Ohlheiser|first1=Abby|date=2017-01-05|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=2017-05-15|last2=Ohlheiser|first2=Abby|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170130045513/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2017/01/05/how-an-online-fight-about-dogs-became-one-of-2016s-greatest-memes/|archive-date=2017-01-30|url-status=live}}
WeRateDogs has successfully used the account to raise money for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), as well as individual GoFundMe campaigns.{{Cite web |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dog-rating-twitter-feed_us_566bea45e4b0e292150e13e6/ |title=Lee Moran, "There's Way Too Much Cuteness In This New Dog-Rating Twitter Feed," Huffington Post, Dec 12, 2015 |website=HuffPost |date=12 December 2015 |access-date=2016-09-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919173754/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dog-rating-twitter-feed_us_566bea45e4b0e292150e13e6 |archive-date=2016-09-19 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |url=http://site.people.com/pets/weratedogs-is-the-canine-hot-or-not-of-twitter/ |title=Kelli Bender, "WeRateDogs Is the Canine Hot or Not of Twitter", People, Dec. 9, 2015 |access-date=2016-09-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160923165210/http://site.people.com/pets/weratedogs-is-the-canine-hot-or-not-of-twitter/ |archive-date=2016-09-23 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |url=http://fox5sandiego.com/2016/08/31/bored-college-students-idea-spawns-wildly-popular-weratedogs-twitter-account/ |title="Bored College Student Spawns Wildly Popular WeRateDogs Twitter Account, Fox News, June 8, 2016 |date=31 August 2016 |access-date=2016-09-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160907105154/http://fox5sandiego.com/2016/08/31/bored-college-students-idea-spawns-wildly-popular-weratedogs-twitter-account/ |archive-date=2016-09-07 |url-status=live }}[http://metro.co.uk/2015/12/07/this-twitter-account-is-rating-peoples-dogs-and-its-adorable-5548740/ Alison Lynch, This Twitter Account Is Rating People's Dogs and Its Adorable], {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160930114444/http://metro.co.uk/2015/12/07/this-twitter-account-is-rating-peoples-dogs-and-its-adorable-5548740/ |date=2016-09-30 }} Metro UK, December 7, 2015 In 2020, the account raised $1.3 million for more than 170 dogs.{{Cite web|last=Locke|first=Taylor|date=2021-01-21|title=Matt Nelson founded We Rate Dogs as a teen—now it's a booming business that's also raised over $1.3 million for dogs in need|url=https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/21/how-we-rate-dogs-raises-money-to-help-dogs-in-need.html|access-date=2021-02-03|website=CNBC|language=en}}
In October 2017, Nelson released a book based on the Twitter account, #WeRateDogs: The Most Hilarious and Adorable Pups You’ve Ever Seen.
Copyright issues
WeRateDogs brought media attention to copyright and suspension policies on Twitter when the popular account was closed twice because of spurious Digital Millennium Copyright Act complaints brought by competitors and unknown accounts. "For Nelson and many of his fans," wrote The Washington Post, "the whole ordeal has raised some serious questions about whether it’s simply too easy for pranksters to successfully remove content from the Internet by abusing the copyright claim process, particularly on Twitter."{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/02/11/the-internets-top-dog-rater-keeps-disappearing-from-twitter/ |title=Abby Ohlheiser, "The Internet's most famous dog rater keeps disappearing from Twitter", Washington Post, February 11, 2016 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=2016-09-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919153937/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/02/11/the-internets-top-dog-rater-keeps-disappearing-from-twitter/ |archive-date=2016-09-19 |url-status=live }}[http://www.dailydot.com/debug/twitter-dog-rates-dmca-takedown AJ Dellinger, "Bogus DMCA claim temporarily takes down one of Twitter's best dog feeds," The Daily Dot, Feb 10, 2016] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160902175929/http://www.dailydot.com/debug/twitter-dog-rates-dmca-takedown/ |date=2016-09-02 }}/{{Cite web |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/twitter-rate-dogs-account-suspended/ |title=Clinton Nguyen, Twitter's Most Harmlessly Charming Account Was Mysteriously Suspended, Vice, February 9, 2016 |date=10 February 2016 |access-date=2016-09-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160921061232/http://motherboard.vice.com/read/twitter-rate-dogs-account-suspended |archive-date=2016-09-21 |url-status=live }}
References
{{Reflist}}