Since it’s very easy to submit posts to blog carnivals, the “barrier to entry” for the submitter is pretty low.  This can be a pain for the person hosting a carnival, since the host has to wade through a bunch of irrelevant submissions as the blog carnival is being assembled.

As a host there are a few ways of handling off-topic posts:

• Silently exclude the post.  Just don’t include a particular post.  Maybe state in the carnival that there were a few off-topic posts submitted to your edition that weren’t included.  See if you hear from the submitter.
• Exclude the post but let the submitter know.  If it’s reasonably close to topic but not quite, let the submitter know and suggest another carnival that might be a better fit.  Sometimes the submitter will accept this and other times they will debate it.  Forewarned is forearmed.
• Spin the post to fit the topic.  This is another approach that can be taken for close-to-topic posts.  Word the description of the post to make a closer fit.  Doing this gives extra posts to your carnival.
• Include it but separate it as off-topic.  For all but the most off-the-wall topics this might be a way to handle it.  It avoids most debates with the posters (their posts were included, after all) and indicates to the carnival readers that you did actually read enough of the post to recognize it as off-topic.  If you’re in an ornery mood, you could mock the post, I suppose, but that has its own set of consequences.

In managing my carnival I usually leave the discretion to the host because it’s their blog and their carnival, ultimately.  They have to be comfortable with what they post.  For other carnival managers, they may want more say in the editorial aspects of the carnival.  I won’t speak for all hosts but I’ll venture that most are reasonable folks that will listen to what you have to say as a host, so talk with them about issues as they come up.

• Do due diligence with hosts Getting hosts for your carnival can be tough.  It takes organization to keep things moving, and sometimes the hosting schedule gets tight.It's tempting to jump at the first person who offers.  That's fine but be sure to do some due diligence.Meaning check out their blog.  Is it a place that......
• Communicate with your hosts If you're managing a carnival then you know how important your hosts are.  They can make managing the carnival a piece of cake.  And if they volunteer to host, they likely know what it entails and will put together a good carnival for you, the carnival readers, and for the......
• Using the InstaCarnival without making it look like one For those who have hosted blog carnivals in a pinch, it's a big help to have a working template that has all of the posts basically ready to go.  That's what BlogCarnival.com's InstaCarnival is.All of the posts are cast into simple sentences, likeBlogger presents A Really Cool Post over at......
• Screen the submissions with clear rules If there are no rules for what can be submitted to your blog carnival, then just about anything will be submitted!  The overall quality of posts submitted to the Carnival of Debt Reduction had been going downhill a touch.  Lots of automatic carnival submission was happening through BlogCarnival.com, and I......

• Carnivals And Festivals For The Week of September 17 2007. The Carnival of Debt Reduction was hosted over at Ask Mr. Credit Card, and my post "How We Paid Down Our Debt and Saved Money at The Same Time" was included. A few of my favorites were: "When People Are Less Than Supportive" from Blunt Money. "Stop Using Your Credit......
• Weekly Round-Up: Save your Money Edition The College Money Network is running a two week series on Graduating From College During a Recession. You can get all of the posts in this series and more by subscribing to the College Money Network RSS feed.   Personal Finance Carnivals Carnival of Personal Finance was hosted at Weakonomics. The Carnival included my post......
• Joining a Blog Carnival Joining a blog carnival is capable of allowing you to improve your blog. Have you ever heard of what a blog carnival is all about? Let us go into what it takes for you to join a blog carnival including what the benefits are for participating in a blog carnival.......
• Blog Carnival vs Blogroll A blogroll is a list of blogs that is usually placed in the sidebar or along the bottom of a blog, reading as a list of blogger-recommended blogs and other websites. A better way for bloggers to share this information with their readers is through the release of a Blog......