Detailing what he thought was a bug at BarackObama.com, Michael Arrington found it odd that the site listed the "Gay Nigger Association of America for Barack Obama" as a supporter. Some quick digging turned up an error alright. The system automatically displayed the latest group created, whether it was actually supportive or not.

The bug ended up being the openness of the system.

The big problem with creating a truly open system is the fact that openness automatically devolves to the lowest common denominator. Open systems attract community, but they also attract nuts. Republicans are constantly plagued with people creating bogus "Klansmen for Whoever" groups and clever login names like "David Duke" and "F**kGeorgeBush". Such is the nature of the beast.

With high profile Democrats pursuing the same openness Democrat blogs have employed, they'll quickly learn the pitfalls of such an approach when applied to a carefully managed image campaign. The differences between managing the image of a Presidential candidate, and managing a blog that enables the often unhinged base (of either party), are significant.

A later update to Arrington's post indicates the campaign instituted a control that requires them to approve any newly created group. Such a control may be viewed (rightly) as the beginning of a more top-down approach to managing the site. As the site gets more attention, they'll discover a brand new headache.

What happens when a legitimate sounding group, creates a legitimate page to get approved, and then immediately changes the content to something derogatory?

I suspect they're going to spend a lot of time managing this system. The question for Barack, and for any campaign wanting to pursue such a strategy, is whether the administrative headache is worth the benefit.