backbone cabal

backbone cabal
 n.

   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.

   See {NANA} for the subsequent history of "the Cabal".
    

backbone cabal

   <networking> A group of large-site administrators who pushed
   through the {Great Renaming} and reined in the chaos of
   {Usenet} during most of the 1980s.  The cabal {mailing list}
   disbanded in late 1988 after a bitter internal cat-fight.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1994-11-28)