Don't Exclude Legitimate Carnival Contributors
Brian Gongol


The host of the November 1st, 2004 edition of the "Carnival of the Capitalists" excluded a range of posts from the weekly collaborative effort, saying:
I've made a deliberate effort to avoid posts that were mostly based on politics. It may be November 1st on an election year, but as a Canadian I want us to remember that the US isn't the center of the universe. Besides, we're better when we stick to the business at hand: business!
This was an unwise decision for a number of reasons: By all means, the host of any given CotC has the prerogative to reject anything:
It will be up to the discretion of the host each week whether to link each submission, how or whether to categorize, organize, describe and display them. A post may be omitted for any or no reason.
However, for the reasons indicated above, as well as others unnamed, it is both unwise and illogical to reject contributions capriciously and without good cause. Inevitably, some folks will send in junk posts. But it should be reasonably easy to identify which are junk and which are worthwhile contributions that may simply be a little more broadly-focused than the norm.

Rather than rejecting contributions outright, hosts ought to consider some alternatives: It's difficult to identify precisely who was rejected for November 1st. It appears that both Photon Courier and The Egoist were among those kiboshed. Soapbox commentaries or not, they would certainly have made worthwhile entries.