Not shocking a pool on a weekly basis was one of the best pieces of advice I learned from this pool. As a new pool owner, I began by using the "shock" setting (100% for 24 hours) on my SWCG, but I'd have to remember to run the pump after the scheduled off time, and then the pool would stay at a high chlorine level for most of the week, only to be shocked all over again the following week. Very shortly after becoming a pool owner, though, I learned here that shocking is used to get rid of high CC, but if CC levels are low (0.5 or less), it's not really necessary. So, I don't ever regularly shock my pool.

Like you, aylad, I do kinda shock my pool now if I know it's going to get a lot of heavy use. But instead of adjusting the SWCG, I just pour in a 1.5 gallon of grocery store bleach before the hordes of kids come over -- I can't say for certain that that's really necessary, but it makes me feel good about re-entering the pool after everyone's left and gone home again. :-)