We certainly began in a flurry and though that has now slowed due to summer commitments and holidays, it is still ticking over. Some things have come through quite strongly from members:

1. We want no truck with any sort of personal confrontation politics. We could hardly be described as a genteel society and yet we are interacting on the finally streamlined site in quite a nice way. People are visiting one another, commenting and linking and we are in the process of building a character distinctly Bloghounds.

2. The key seems to be that we make almost no rules. For example, how many times should one member link to another? It's not stipulated. How many times should one do this or that? It's not stipulated. Whether this more freewheeling approach can continue remains to be seen but it has served us well to this point.

Why would you wish to join this group when there are other groups to join as well? It's the atmosphere inside mainly, the feeling of being part of something nice, the absence of rancour and a spirit of fun. I myself am probably the least laid back of all of us and yet there is a good-natured tolerance of most of my missals from the centre [at least I hope so].

In time you'll see more posts from other members, as and when people learn the ropes and see that the site is by members, for members. Remember, if you would like to be part of Bloghounds, there is a two stage process - applying for a user account in the sidebar and sending an email to the bloghounds group [address in sidebar] with your url.

This was the original letter below but at the moment, until March, 2010, we are not in a position, sorry, to take new members. We are currently working on a revamp of the group.      

Hello and a very warm welcome to Bloghounds. We are a group of bloggers who wish to support one another in simple but effective ways: by visiting each other’s blogs, linking to each other whenever we can and, above all, through mutual encouragement. As fellow members, you will find us a friendly and positive bunch from many different walks of life.

Bloghounds offers membership to authors of quality blogs, primarily in the English language and if we appear to be a little selective on the word 'quality', then that is because we are proud of our name and reputation in the sphere. We push no barrows, we maintain no political line; we're just a group.

[Welshcakes Limoncello, of Sicily Scene]

The Bloghounds are not, at the moment, taking new members. The group is currently going through a revamp and it's envisaged that a different type of membership will be available from the beginning of March.

Sorry to those who have applied in the last weeks but things are currently on hold.