Talk:There Is No Cabal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article was nominated for deletion on 8 July, 2006. The result of the discussion was keep.

What does TINC mean (beyond what each letter stands for)? What is the context? Is it used sarcastically? Seriously? In what context?

It's a Usenet tradition.

It is my personal observation that people (at least in my Western world) are no longer used to lack of any _formal_ authority. When these people encounter Usenet, it sometimes takes them a very long time to get used to the idea that their government and their police are actually formed by whatever their peers feel like at the moment. This leads to misbehaviour (oh, I can do anything I like, because who are you to tell me what to do?), but also to paranoia (this group is so inaccessible -- are you sure you guys are not talking about me behind my back?).

The latter is of course the belief in a conspiracy, hence the need I feel to sometimes just post 'tinc', instead of delving into the nth long-winded rant about how Usenet really works (which is, basically, the way any group of people works).

Unfortunately, I know of no studies into this phenomenon, so I have no way of telling if my assumptions are actually based on fact. --branko

Exactly. We assume that *someone* must be in charge -- there must be a single person with legal authority and responsibility. "Take me to your leader" and all that. When confronted by a group of people that *seem* to act in an organized fashion, yet they won't tell us who their leader is -- or they claim not to have a leader -- our first reaction is to assume they're a pack of liars, led by some leader who has instructed them to keep his identity a secret. (Yes, "his" -- we assume a male leader). Naturally this leads to paranoid speculations and conspiracy theories about what *other* deep dark secrets he/they are hiding, what he talks about with his top advisors (the the cabal), and so on. I suppose I could apply this theory to groups outside UseNet, but I promised myself I wouldn't start any big political arguments this year. -- DavidCary 04:19, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

There's a Cabal on wikipedia though!!!--68.108.180.78 02:27, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I don't know what you're talking about. -Sean Curtin 05:29, Nov 18, 2004 (UTC)

Please do not add Wikipedia-centric comments to the article space, and certainly not 'in-jokes'.

James F. (talk) 10:58, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Maybe he's talking about me. Hah. CABAL 07:42, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

• TINC on WP is a statement of fact, isn't it? :) Seriously though, what's the harm in a joke like that? Just like Recursion linking to itself. Jokes are sometimes encyclopedic. Radiant_* 13:17, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)

The first paragraph is in present tense, but the second and third are in past tense. I know that the past tense paragraphs are sort of giving a bit of historical context, but Usenet, like any widely used internet protocol, is always "under construction". My hope is that someone more eloquent than myself will be able to rephrase the article so that it's historical and current. --Ugliness Man 18:51, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Shouldn't this page be moved to WikiQuote? 84.81.200.33 23:20, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Not in the slightest. Wikiquote doesn't deal with information of this sort. Wiktionary could define the term and that's it. Wikipedia is the best project for this article. Captainktainer * Talk 01:44, 3 September 2006 (UTC)