As blog carnivals get big and well-established, the traffic gets pretty substantial.  This attracts more posts, both good and bad.  The good posts, because it’s a good, long-standing carnival that bloggers want to submit to.  The bad posts, because it’s an easy, high-traffic link for not that much work.

Initially, when the Carnival of Personal Finance started up, the philosophy was to try to include everyone who submitted a post.  The idea was to encourage participation, create something that was greater than the sum of its parts, and create a collaborative, cooperative environment for personal finance bloggers.  Not that Flexo has lost his sense of community now that over 100 editions have been posted and his carnival has become the target of more and more spammy posts, but he’s begun to ask more of the posters and also of the hosters.

A similar set of guidelines were put out by the manager of the Carnival of the Capitalists when I guest-hosted.  This is also a large carnival.  The management here comes in the form of a detailed page on the CotC blog.

Having some rules when the carnivals get large adds some structure and keeps the hosts from getting too overwhelmed.  (The recent host of the Carnival of Personal Finance asked for more posts over at the MBN Forums so apparently some folks aren’t overwhelmed easily!) However, the rules are an additional burden on the hosts and can deter them from signing on.

Where’s the “sweet spot” for how much to manage a carnival?

The Carnival of Debt Reduction hasn’t quite gotten to the mega-carnival stage but I still get questions from the hosts about which posts to include.  Basically my instructions to the hosts are to use their judgment and that I’ll support them.  I’d probably hold off instituting a lot of rules as long as possible (basically until I can’t) because I’m not really big on rules in general.  But if it gets to the point that the hosts start feeling overwhelmed then I might not have much choice.  As far as having a “best of” section, how to order the posts in the carnival, what posts to reject, how to present the carnival, how to handle people who don’t link back, etc., leaving many of these decisions up to the host allows the individual nature of the host to come out more.

So here are some tests to see if you need more regulation in your carnival:

• Are there lots of off-topic posts submitted?  Then define the topic better or give authority to the hosts to nix off-topic posts.
• Are submitters being lazy linking back?  Then start keeping a list of the worst offenders.
• Are the hosts starting to cave in under the load?  Then it might be time to start restricting the size, or otherwise make things a little easier for the hosts.  Or at the very least define what hosts are to do a little more.  (Without hosts, carnivals can be a lot of work!)

• Carnival evolution: Broadcasting to Nichecasting Some of the first blog carnivals had a broad subject matter.  Since "carnival real estate" was wide open, general-interest carnivals could stake their claim without displacing anyone.  When one looks at the money and finance carnivals at BlogCarnival.com there are a couple of screenfuls of money and finance carnivals.  The......
• Dealing with off-topic posts as a host 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......
• 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......
• Easy themes your blog carnival Adding a theme to your carnival doesn't have to be difficult.  It can be as easy as looking around you and searching Wikipedia. Interspersing a few interesting facts about a timely topic, regardless of whether that topic is closely tied to the particular blog carnival, dresses it up substantially.  It's......

• Equinox week money carnivals A bit snowy for the week containing the first day of spring, but no matter ... Here are some of this week's money carnivals! Carnival of Personal Finance XL -- very well organized, by the way! -- is at Money Blog Network member All Things Financial! My post on the......
• 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.......
• Carnival #53 is up at Journey to Financial Freedom Thanks very much to Journey to Financial Freedom for hosting this week's Carnival of Debt Reduction!Sixteen articles in this week's carnival -- thanks to everyone who submitted! Ones that I especially liked:Gratitude and debt.  Instead of looking at what you don't have, look at what you do have, and work......
• Guest Post: Do-It-Yourself Debt Reduction v. Professional Debt Reduction One of the businesses that is booming right now is that of "credit counseling." These are professionals who help you with debt reduction through such means as debt consolidation and debt negotiation. The idea is that you can have someone else take all of your debts for you, and roll......