What is the best example of....

[WingedWolfPsion]

*facepalm*

People are TRULY overcomplicating this. Showing animals is about a group of people setting a standard, and then competing to meet that standard.
A) If someone doesn't like the standard, they simply don't join the club, and don't compete.
B) The standard can be revised if the majority of the club changes its mind.
C) If the people in the club can't agree on whether or not blushing is good in pastels, then they have 2 choices--allow both high and low blushing, or write 2 different standards, and declare 2 different versions of that morph (which is what we have done in the ball python community, by referring to animals as 'lemon pastel' or 'Graziani pastel'--people know what that means, basically).

You don't want to show ball pythons? Simple...you never join the club. You don't like their standard? No problem...you breed for a different look. Someone in the club doesn't like one of the standards? They can leave the club, or try to get the look they want listed as a standard for a new strain.

What is the purpose? Because people like to show off their creations, and people are competitive. It's purely for fun.

I can also imagine standard sizes being introduced--ball pythons above or below certain weights could be labeled 'miniature', 'standard', or 'giant', for example. Body shapes, tail lengths, etc, all could be selected for.

If people want to do it. All you need for this to happen is a group of people...say, maybe 10...who want to do it. Voila, it will be happening. It doesn't matter if 300 people hate it, if those 10 want to do it, they will do it, lol.

I'm not sure why folks are confused.

Breeding ball python morphs is about creating gorgeous animals through selective breeding. A show club would be about doing so in a more organized fashion, that's all. I can understand people not wanting to participate, but I don't quite get where the poo-poohing of the idea is coming from. It's bound to happen eventually. How long people have been breeding ball pythons is quite irrelevant to that.

Why? Because there is an enthusiastic following of people all across the US who show horses. Not living ones, mind you. Plastic horses. Some of them repainted, some of them original as the factory made them. They love their hobby, they love the competition and the social aspects of it, and they have a wall full of ribbons. They're not all teenaged girls, either.

If people will show plastic horses, it would be pretty absurd to think that they won't show ball pythons.