History
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, although it is also claimed by Mark Horton. Other prominent members of the cabal were Brian Reid, Richard Sexton, Chuq von Rospach, Neil Crellin and Rick Adams.
Read more about this topic: Backbone Cabal
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I feel as tall as you.”
—Ellis Meredith, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 14, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“Indeed, the Englishman’s history of New England commences only when it ceases to be New France.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“If you look at the 150 years of modern China’s history since the Opium Wars, then you can’t avoid the conclusion that the last 15 years are the best 15 years in China’s modern history.”
—J. Stapleton Roy (b. 1935)