Backbone cabal

Mary Ann Horton recruited membership in and designed the original physical topology of the Usenet Backbone in 1983. Gene "Spaf" Spafford then created an email list of the backbone administrators, plus a few influential posters. This list became known as the Backbone Cabal and served as a "political (i.e. decision making) backbone". Other prominent members of the cabal were Brian Reid, Richard Sexton, Chuq von Rospach and Rick Adams. == In internet culture ==

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"'). 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. == References ==