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1995-09-08
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Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!grapevine.lcs.mit.edu!olivea!hookup!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!newsserver.jvnc.net!newsserver2.jvnc.net!netnews.upenn.edu!jake.esu.edu!coot.ma.iup.edu!pyld
From: Matt Schnierle <pyld@coot.ma.iup.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.usenet-cabal,alt.answers,news.answers
Subject: alt.conspiracy.usenet-cabal Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Date: Thu, 7 Sep 1995 17:08:18 -0400
Organization: People for the Ethical Treatment of USENET
Lines: 159
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
Expires: Sat, 7 Oct 1995
Message-ID: <Pine.ULT.3.91.950907165830.23955A-100000-100000@coot.ma.iup.edu>
Reply-To: pyld@oak.grove.iup.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: coot.ma.iup.edu
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Summary: This posting contains frequently asked questions and answers about the usenet cabal conspiracy
Followup: alt.conspiracy.usenet-cabal
Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu alt.conspiracy.usenet-cabal:741 alt.answers:11933 news.answers:52507
Archive-name: usenet/cabal-conspiracy-FAQ
alt-conspiracy-usenet-cabal-Archive-name: FAQ
Posting-Frequency: Monthly (7th of each)
Version: 1.2
URL: http://www.ma.iup.edu/~pyld/faq.html
ALT.CONSPIRACY.USENET-CABAL FAQ
* I. What the heck is this group?
* II. Why was it created?
* III. Who created it?
* IV. What the heck is a cabal?
* V. But I thought they broke the Backbone Cabal?
* VI. So, there is no Cabal
* VII. Credits and other information
* VIII. Where this FAQ can be obtained
I. What the heck is this group?
Alt.conspiracy.usenet-cabal is a group to allow the unbelievers or
believers (depending upon your personal level of paranoia) to ponder
the existence and actions of the Usenet Cabal. It also serves as a
repository for other related discussions of supposed "control"
figures and groups that some net.kooks swear are out to get you. Be
forewarned. Note--This FAQ is frequently posted to such groups where
a question of clarification of the Cabal's role or history is deemed
needed.
II. Why was it created?
In late 1994 and early 1995, a reorganization of the news.*
hierarchy was proposed and eventually passed. During the inevitable
flame war that took place, the opposition accused the proponents of
attempting to consolidate power to control USENET, and began
throwing the concept of a Cabal around (not for the first time, see
part IV). A relatively amused bystander decided that it would be a
Good Idea to take these discussions out of the groups they were
currently in (alt.current-events.net-abuse and most of the news.*
groups) and place them in a group were the legions (actually, there
were only 5 or 10, but they were awfully vocal) of paranoid
naysayers could discuss the group amongst themselves.
III. Who created It?
Matt Schnierle (pyld@oak.grove.iup.edu) sent the original control
message in early February of 1995, after the group had been proposed
and discussed in alt.config.
IV. What the heck is a cabal?
According to Webster's Dictionary, a cabal is "a small group of
secret plotters" or "the plots and schemes of such a group." When
referring to a cabal in terms of present day USENET, one pictures a
group of people who secretly meet in a smokey back room, have
private mailing lists, and meet in exotic spots in California, North
Carolina, and Virginia, all the while plotting the future of USENET,
its content, and its users.
The "original" cabal was comprised of news administrators of the
major "backbone" (those willing to pay huge long distance bills in
the days of UUCP, and who moved a great majority of USENET traffic)
sites. These individuals had a large say in the creation and naming
of groups, simply because they could _seriously_ hurt a group's
propagation by not carrying it. During the "Great Renaming," it was
these people who oversaw the dismantling of the net.*, mod.*, and
fa.* hierarchies and reorganized them into the system we have today
(comp.*, misc.*, news.*, rec.*, soc.*, sci.*, talk.*). The Backbone
Cabal came apart for many reasons. The voting system was brought
into play, which reduced much of the Cabal's power. Brian Reid,
whose recipe group was somehow eliminated during the renaming, began
the alt.* hierarchy (which was originally carried via alternate
distribution means, therefore avoiding the Backbone). The
introduction of NNTP allowed news to be distributed over the
Internet, which reduced the power of the Backbone by offering
separate and better means for high volume traffic handling.
Eventually, the Backbone Cabal and its mailing list, ceased to
exist.
V. But I thought they broke the Backbone Cabal!
They did. But there are many doomsayers, who to this day _insist_
that there is a Cabal that continues to control USENET, while trying
to gain and consolidate even more power. Despite the fact that
USENET is cooperative by nature, and that any administrator's
influence ends at the gateway to his site, these seemingly normal
(although this characterization is used loosely) humans cling to the
notion that there is a Cabal.
In order to combat this slightly warped view of the world, the
readers of USENET have developed the following regulation:
USENET Rule #0: There is no Cabal. There is, however,
a net-wide conspiracy designed solely to lead Dave
Hayes (dave@elxr.jpl.nasa.gov) to believe that there is
a Cabal.
(Rule courtesy of David DeLaney's net.legends FAQ)
This rule explains many things, the foremost being the existence of
alt.conspiracy.usenet-cabal. When someone rants about the evil
Cabal, their post is met with the inevitable response
"Remember--there is no Cabal." And life goes on.
Even though There is No Cabal, you can find out more about the Cabal
at http://www.usenet.com/. Also, there may or may no be a separate
alt.* Cabal. Refer to the above URL for details.
VI. So, There is No Cabal.
Exactly. Hence alt.conspiracy.usenet-cabal.
~~~~~~~~~~
VII. Credits and other information
This document would not be possible without the input and writings
of a great many people. Much of the information regarding the Great
Renaming and the Backbone Cabal was gleamed from many postings and
FAQ's which are too numerous to entirely list. However, the
following documents were of great assistance in compiling this FAQ:
The Net.Legends FAQ: Maintained by David DeLaney
(dbd@panacea.phys.utk.edu)
The Great Renaming FAQ: Lee S. Bumgarner
(lsbumgar@vax1.acs.jmu.edu)
The USENET Cabal Homepage: http://www.usenet.com/
(Remember, there is no homepage)
As always, there were many USENET posters whose thoughts, ideas, and
debates had a rather large influence on the content of this FAQ, in
addition to many e-mail correspondences. I'm sure some of them will
be surprised that they are on this list; I can simply say thanks.
The authors who heavily influenced this FAQ include: Jonathan Grobe,
Paul Phillips, Henry Edward Hardy, Joel Furr, Brad Templeton, Chris
Lewis, Richard M. Miller, Dik T. Winter, Dave Hayes, Steve Boursy,
Andrew Steven Damick, David DeLaney, Lee S. Bumgarner, Mike Chapman,
David Barr, Abby Franquemont-Guillory, Brian Edmonds, Tim Pierce,
Michael Grubb, @who cabal, Gene Spafford, David Lawrence, UVV, Ian
Kluft, CancelMoose (tm), Ron Newman, the folks from *.answers,
root@cabal.com, and many others who go unmentioned....
VIII. Where this FAQ can be obtained
This FAQ can be located at the following places:
FTP:
USA--rtfm.mit.edu in /pub/usenet/news.answers/usenet
Europe--ftp.iaehv.nl in the /pub/users/perry
World Wide Web:
http://www.ma.iup.edu/~pyld/faq.html
Faq Maintained By: Matt Schnierle (pyld@oak.grove.iup.edu)
_________________________________________________________________