What is the Point?

In life outside of the blogosphere there are rules and regulations with consequences for non-compliance.  Consequences range from minor fines to the death penalty and everything in between with stiffer penalties for repeat offenders.  Laws are not enacted if there is no intention of enforcement.  Parents, teachers, and other authority figures do not make rules if they don't intent to follow through with the punishment for non-compliance. 

In the blogosphere there are rules and regulations starting with those set by your ISP in the form of Terms of Service (TOS) and Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).  Furthermore if you are using a phone line to access your ISP there may be additional rules and regulations as to what you can do.  Once into the blogsphere your blog hosting site, affiliate programs and blog advertising networks have their own TOS.  In most cases the TOS are enforced.  The million dollar question is why have a TOS if you aren't going to enforce it?

That is precisely what is happening in some blog advertising networks.  In fairness, once a blog is approved for the network it is difficult to police.  Admin ususally discovers non-compliance via complaints from other members.  But what happens when a blog in the system is reported for non-compliance on multiple occasions but nothing is done about it or if something was done about it, the blogger only temporarily complies?  In my opinion it should be the three strikes and you are out rule similar to what I've seen on many traffic exchanges and some blog advertising networks.  What this means is they are notified to comply then go onto the watch list after the first complaint.  If there is a second complaint they are notified to comply with the warning that the next complaint will result in removal from the network.  If a member gets three complaints for the same infraction they are removed from the network without further notice.

Garden Gnome
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