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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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The Jargon File's Guide to Hacker Slang:
backbone cabal |
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”.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Backbone cabal |
The backbone cabal was an informal organization of large-site administrators of the worldwide distributed newsgroup-based discussion system Usenet. It existed from about 1983 at least into the 2000s.
The cabal was created in an effort to facilitate reliable propagation of new Usenet posts: While in the 1970s and 1980s many news servers only operated during night time to save on the cost of long distance communication, servers of the backbone cabal were available 24 hours a day. The administrators of these servers gained sufficient influence in the otherwise anarchic Usenet community to be able to push through controversial changes, for instance the Great Renaming of Usenet newsgroups during the 1980s.
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As Usenet has few technologically or legally enforced hierarchies, just about the only ones that formed were social hierarchies. People acquired power through persuasion, exerted both publicly and privately, public debate, force of will (often via aggressive 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.).
Credit for organizing the backbone about 1983 is commonly attributed to Gene "Spaf" Spafford,[1] although it is also claimed by Mark Horton.[2] Other prominent members of the cabal were Brian Reid, Richard Sexton, Chuq von Rospach and Rick Adams.
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]
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
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