It was bound to happen sometime, I suppose. In what is about the coolest move yet for a blog carnival, the Carnival of the Vanities has temporarily split into a host edition and an anti-host edition -- one hopes that it has a shorter lifespan than the real Avignon schism. The comments of the host at "yeah whatever" on the posts received in Carnival #134 generated so much controversy that a Carnival #134 Avignon Edition was set up at "This Blog is Full of Crap." (hat-tip: Parableman) One of the interesting things about the schism so far is how important people's sense of blogging conventions, and in particular, the conventions of the Carnival, has become: the Avignon edition was built due to discontent at the host's conformity to Carnival conventions, and it is notable that most of the bloggers who have supported the action have clearly connected their support to the maintenance of those conventions.
It reminds me a bit of Hume's view of etiquette as a "lesser morality" in the sense of being a morality-like system built on a weaker set of general principles. Indeed, Hume would find the whole event of interest, given that it shows how the sort of principles he describes (sympathy, generalization, moral sentiment) work to increase social order, even in a relatively rough-and-tumble medium like the blogosphere.
