Are There Any Rules We Must Follow?

The short answer: not many. Rules are generally set by each host but there are also carnival guidelines that are generally accepted but not considered written in stone. The first blog carnival, the Carnival of the Vanities was founded by North Carolina bloggers, Bigwig and Kehaar of Silflay Hraka and most are based on their example.

The generally accepted guidelines of The Ringing Of The Bards are as follows:

* It is recommended that current hosts follow these instructions and that future scheduled hosts submit here. IN doing so you may get more traffic and or submissions.
* Participants in any carnival should be willing to link to any carnival in which they are highlighted.
* Submissions should usually be no more than two weeks old but exceptions can be made.
* Submissions are usually due by 2PM., EST on Saturday but sometimes a host may have business or personal needs that cause him or her to vary the submission deadlines.
* The Ringing Of The Bards is usually posted online on Saturday or Sunday of each week.
* What is acceptable as a submission is at the discretion of the host. Should a host be unsure he or she can always consult the administrator of the carnival. In the case of the Ringing, the administrator is currently, Billy Jones of BloggingPoet.com. The administrator has no control over the host and is only there for consultation so don't bother trying to go over the head of any host. After all, there will always be other weeks and other carnivals one might try.
* Hosts may set a theme or topic but in doing so you run the risk that few will submit to your carnival. A better way is to set a theme with the option of accepting submissions outside the theme.
* Late submissions are sometimes accepted, though they will most often be footnotes at the end as rewriting an entire carnival for a few late submissions is more than would be expected of any host. If you're late and you get a link then be happy.
* A host may accept as many submissions as that host feels capable of handling be it 10, 20, 50, or 100. Honestly, no one is expected to handle over 20 or so submissions but if you're up to the task then handle it.
* When the ringing Of The Bards becomes consistently too big, it is hoped a second poetry carnival will be started by someone brave enough or foolish enough to try it, And it will be with the full blessings of those who participate in the Ringing.
* And finally, it's recommended that hosts send an e-mail to Billy Jones at idleblogs (AT) yahoo.com so he will know your carnival is up and running.

Remember: Nothing is set in stone and discretion should always be used.