[ih] The Backbone Cabal

[Greg Skinner]

On Oct 2, 2025, at 4:58 PM, Lyndon Nerenberg (VE7TFX/VE6BBM) via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> 
> All this UUCP chatter reminded me of the backbone cabal.  The source
> of many early Usenet conspiracy theories :-)
> 
> Is there an archive of the cabal mailing list anywhere?
> 
> I know it was a private list, but there is a *lot* of history in
> there about the development of the UUCP mail networks, and Usenet.
> It's well over 30 years since that list was active (I would guess).
> Certainly the statute of limitations has long expired for any
> transgressions contained therein.  Or even if it's too early to
> open up, a copy should be permanently archived somewhere, if a
> copy still exists.
> 
> --lyndon
> --

This news.groups post from Dave Taylor of HP Labs suggests that the backbone cabal’s address could have been backbone at cbosgd.att.com (or [some well-connected UUCP path]!cbosgd!backbone). [1] If you google news.admin, news.groups, comp.mail.maps and some other newsgroups where discussions about what groups to carry, news feeds to take, etc. took place, you’ll see many posts about the backbone cabal.

--gregbo

[1] https://groups.google.com/g/news.groups/c/O9df9nr1dTQ/m/AQzb-sQe8okJ