def METHOD_NAME(self, value):
    """
    Cleans up a slug by removing slug separator characters that occur at
    the beginning or end of a slug.
    If an alternate separator is used, it will also replace any instances
    of the default '-' separator with the new separator.
    """
    re_sep = "(?:-|%s)" % re.escape(self.separator)
    value = re.sub("%s+" % re_sep, self.separator, value)
    return re.sub(r"^%s+|%s+$" % (re_sep, re_sep), "", value)