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!)

• Adding content to a carnival when you host There are many good ways to get your carnival to stand out if you're the host.  Typically the inventiveness is evident in the presentation of the posts.  But what about adding a well-thought-out introduction to the carnival?Most of the carnivals I've hosted just say something to the extent of:"Welcome to......
• 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......
• An unfortunate reality of hosting a blog carnival The larger benefit goes to the people who submit to the carnivals rather than to the people who put forth all of the effort to host them. A number of bloggers I respect have figured this out already, and they're fairly reluctant to host a carnival anymore. They understand the......
• Do a "best" list to feature posts Organizers of some of the more established carnivals are asking their hosts to feature the best posts they receive.  This is in an effort to help separate the cream from the crop and add some impact to the carnival.Tricia over at Blogging Away Debt had a neat way to feature......

• Debt reduction tip: Enlist the help of your spouse My wife and I just celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary.  Some of the biggest arguments we've had during that time have been about money.  This is true for many married couples as well. Recently we've had a lot of expenses crop up, some planned for, others not.  We're a little......
• Eliminate Credit Card Debt Have you recently decided to eliminate credit card debt from your personal finances? Although it may seem like a lofty idea, you should know that it is definitely an achievable goal. You just have to come up with a game plan to will get you where you want to go.......
• Carnivals of Debt Fruvestance MBH was part of four carnivals this week: Festival of Frugality #18 out at The Canadian Capitalist, with Three flea market finds, all for a dollar. Carnival of Debt Reduction #30 out at blah-blah, with Debt reduction by hopping around? Carnival of Personal Finance #43 out at My Money Blog,......
• Digerati Life has posted the carnival! Silicon Valley Blogger at The Digerati Life has posted this week's Carnival of Debt Reduction in a cool question-and-answer format!The personal debt reduction stories and first-hand experience with debt reduction are the main types of posts that I had in mind when I started the carnival, so among the great......