@And Brother I Hurt People  
I think the deal is, does this image deserve to be top scored OVER other images that are of higher quality or require more skill to create. A lot of commentators on this image debate on it. I’m just glad this is one of the top images over porn. Which yes, if you look at all time top scoring and turn off filters you see just how close it is.

Does this image deserve to be top scored?
 
…obviously, the community thinks so. So what’s the deal?

@Goremise  
But it is an show accurate out of character moment.

oh man I feel like walking on brony history posting here actually :o
 
to think this nearly has a score of over 3k even with everything! :D
 
This needs to stay the top image of the site, just to avoid those other images!

@Ridley Wolf  
(that image is soo out of character, why it has so many upvotes confuses me everyday)
 
but this image, Deserves top spot, These 2 are best sisters! :D

Best sisters.

@J4m35  
Victory!

@Ridley Wolf  
There you go then. Argument over!
 
Now let’s stop wasting our time bitching about pictures that ‘deserve’ top scoring and do something worthwhile.

If this one were replaced as the top-scoring image, people would just complain about how the image that replaced it didn’t deserve to be on top.
 
For example, this image:  
 
is the third highest scoring image on the site.
 
It’s clearly not a “low effort” post, but that didn’t stop people from saying it doesn’t deserve such a high score.  
They complained that it’s “out of character,” and therefore unworthy.
 
There’s just no pleasing some people.
 
Now let’s all look at the cute gif of the ponies.

@Xidphel  
AT hasn’t been the only complainer about this. Once every couple of months or so, somebody will query whether it “deserves” to be the top scored.

@Aeternis Tenebris  
…He’s moving and vibrating pony icon images. He’s got good timing, but it’s not exactly Terrytoons-level animation, much less Disney.

@fastbreak333  
2 years?  
AT! Please tell me you weren’t after this gif for that long!

Over 2 years and people are still arguing over whether this gif deserves the top spot. It has actually ruined my enjoyment of this cute gif. Why you guys gotta keep bringing it up?

@Background Pony #E8EB  
I fail to see how sticking two gifs together takes as much effort as animating several images in a skit that can last for a good sum of time.

@Ridley Wolf  
Well, I was being somewhat satirical in my comment; I honestly wouldn’t classify TheeLinker’s ponymote animations as “low-effort” images, though I suspect they do take less effort than the images shown in this comment. I do think they probably take roughly the amount of effort as someone put into this image, though (note the description, which I’m sure isn’t a comprehensive list of the steps required to assemble this image); also, they’re both built on the foundations of someone else’s creative work. And since Aeternis Tenebris has faved TheeLinker’s most recent animations (and probably others, though I didn’t bother to check), it strikes me as hypocritical for him to say this image doesn’t deserve so many faves because it’s “low effort”.
 
(Seriously, while I like this image, I doubt it’d make my list of the top 100 images on this site, but it doesn’t bother me in the least that it’s currently #1.)

@Mad Black  
Ah.  
Well, as I said, people tend to be just magnetized to either cute or porn (and God help if it’s cute porn), which often lets pieces that are neither but have nonetheless had more work put into them get overlooked. It’s unfortunate but true.

@SuperSupermario24  

 
Rainbow Dash is from the episode Just for Sidekicks, there she nozzles Tank. Here it is edited that she nozzles Scootaloo instead. The Scootaloo vector should be from sleepless in Ponyville. Both is edited to fit better to each other. Probably somehing you can do with Photoshop in a few hours.  
Still i rather have this as THE Top Scooring Image than the OC-plot-porn.
 
Personal opinion: From the artistic point of view >>798402, >>858027, >>702641 would be more deserving to be on top.  
My personal favorite from the pictures with a score greater than 1500 is this one. Just because of all details.  
 
But there are a lot older pieces of art which were uploaded 3 years ago and only have a score ~50 that easily should have >500, if not much higher.

@Aeternis Tenebris  
I know that having a duck badge doesn’t mean that a person is completely unable to make logical and coherent arguments, and indeed, a few people with the duck badge are friendly and reasonable the majority of the time (Nightweaver20xx comes to mind). However, it does mean that you should expect people to look down upon you a little, and not take you as seriously as someone without the duck badge, since it means you’re known to have a history of being less than friendly to people.
 
I do agree with you that pieces that have work put into them should get more credit. My opinion of this image mainly rides on whether or not this was taken directly from the show, which I’m unsure of, though the tags kind of suggest so. If so, then I agree that perhaps this has gotten more attention than it deserves. If, however, this was actually done from scratch, then I’ll definitely give them more credit. Still, though, there are other images near the top that should probably get more attention. I think people are just attracted to cute things: I’ve seen completely undoctored animated screencaps crack the top scoring.
 
tl;dr: The Duck badge means, by its very nature, that you should expect people not to take you as seriously as people without it. And, I agree that works with more effort put into them should get more attention than ones with less effort.

@Background Pony #E8EB  
Oh, come on… that’s just funny.
 
And I’d hardly call what TheeLinker does low-effort.  
If nothing else, it’s a time-consuming process, and the praise he gets for his simple yet entertaining animations is well deserved.

@Background Pony #D322  
Well, it could be argued that it would more accurately reflect the brony fandom.
 
@Aeternis Tenebris  
I understand what you mean about low-effort images consisting of other people’s work being edited together getting undeserved adulation; I was slightly disappointed that this image was recently in the three-day top scoring.

@SuperSupermario24  
No, I’m saying only work that actually had effort put in it deserves attention.
 
@Background Pony #7164  
You appear to believe this badge means the owner is never serious ever. I’m not even going to get started on how bad that logic is.
 
@Mad Black  
It steals attention because if it gets upvoted, actual good images are lower and thus harder to find.  
Otherwise…  
 
It’s nice to see another reasonable person in this cesspool.
 
@Xidphel  
And to finish this up, you. You seem to either think I don’t deserve to have an opinion, or that I never give a serious opinion ever. Either way, your comment is completely unjustified and frankly I find it offensive.

@Aeternis Tenebris  
Well I wish that “traditional art” stuff like were higher up in the top scoring too. But to say it steals attention makes no sense.
 
Also it is kinda sad that there are only 32 images under the criteria score.gte:1000, safe, -animation (81 including animation). While at the same time there are 120 with score.gte:1000, explicit, -animation (180 with animation).

@Aeternis Tenebris  
Oh fu-  
CODE AT! CODE AT

@Aeternis Tenebris  
are you saying that porn is the only thing that deserves attention?

@Aeternis Tenebris  
Yes, of course. And we know we can take what you say seriously because of that lovely badge you have.