Backbone cabal

The group of network administrators responsible for setting up policies and procedures for newsgroups throughout the 1980s. They were involved in setting up the name hierarchy (comp, biz, rec, etc.) in 1985, which is still used today. The group disbanded in 1988 due to internal squabbles. See newsgroup.

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A group of large-site administrators who pushed through the Great Renaming and reined in the chaos of Usenet during most of the 1980s. During most of its lifetime, the Cabal (as it was sometimes capitalized) steadfastly denied its own existence; it was almost obligatory for anyone privy to their secrets to respond “There is no Cabal” whenever the existence or activities of the group were speculated on in public.

The result of this policy was an attractive aura of mystery. Even a decade after the cabal mailing list disbanded in late 1988 following a bitter internal catfight, many people believed (or claimed to believe) that it had not actually disbanded but only gone deeper underground with its power intact.

This belief became a model for various paranoid theories about various Cabals with dark nefarious objectives beginning with taking over the Usenet or Internet. These paranoias were later satirized in ways that took on a life of their own. See Eric Conspiracy for one example. Part of the background for this kind of humor is that many hackers cultivate a fondness for conspiracy theory considered as a kind of surrealist art; see the bibliography entry om Illuminatus! for the novel that launched this trend.

See NANA for the subsequent history of “the Cabal”.

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The backbone cabal was a group of large-site administrators who pushed through the Great Renaming of Usenet newsgroups during most of the 1980s.

Credit for organizing the backbone about 1983 is variously claimed for Mark Horton^[1] or Gene "Spaf" Spafford,^[2] in an effort to stabilize the Usenet propagation. While many news servers operated during night time to save the cost of long distance communication, servers of the backbone cabal were available 24 hours a day.

During most of its existence, the cabal (sometimes capitalized) steadfastly denied its own existence; those involved would often respond "There is no Cabal" (sometimes abbreviated as "TINC"), whenever the existence or activities of the group were speculated on in public. It is sometimes used humorously to dispel cabal-like organizational conspiracy theories, or as an ironic statement, indicating one who knows the existence of "the cabal" will invariably deny there is one.

This belief became a model for various conspiracy theories about various Cabals with dark nefarious objectives beginning with taking over Usenet or the Internet. Spoofs include the "Eric Conspiracy" of moustachioed hackers named "Eric"; ex-members of the P.H.I.R.M.; and the Lumber Cartel putatively funding anti-spam efforts to support the paper industry.

The result of this policy was an aura of mystery, even a decade after the cabal mailing list disbanded in late 1988 following an internal fight.^[3]

As Usenet has few technologically or legally enforced hierarchies, just about the only ones that formed were social hierarchies. People exerted power through force of will (often via intimidating flames), garnering authority and respect by spending much time and effort contributing to the community (by being a maintainer of a FAQ, for example; see also Kibo, etc.).

References

1. ^ Mary Ann Horton, Ph.D
2. ^ Controlling the Virtual World
3. ^ "backbone cabal". TechWeb. http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=backbone+cabal. Retrieved 2007-09-07. 

External links

• Jargon File entry
• Cabal Conspiracy FAQ
• Lumber Cartel
• Entry for "TINC" at the Jargon File
• alt.conspiracy.usenet-cabal FAQ on the Cabal and TINC

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