Hacker News Reader

Comment by Zenst | Hacker News Reader

Always irks me how the media use the term "hackers" as some usurped terminology to describe criminal acts using technology. For me, it is like calling burglars a locksmith - that don't happen and yet we see the word "hacker" used by the media to describe criminal acts so far removed from the words original meaning that it just pains me and i'm sure many others. More so when the populus definition of that word now parallels what the media have been putting out for years, it just creates whole generations that will never know what a true hacker is.

View on HN

The meaning of all words changes. It would be ironic if the meaning of the word hacker would be unchangeable, impenetrable.

> The meaning of all words changes. It would be ironic if the meaning of the word hacker would be unchangeable, impenetrable.

Hats off, brilliantly put and the whole aspect that the word hackers got hacked is one that I'll remember with a smile upon this subject. Thank you for that perspective - I'll think better for it.

Indeed, that was insightful - the word "hacker" has been hacked by mass media to re/present a politicized and criminalized interpretation.

The predicament itself feels ironic, in that "hacker" culture reveled in the amoral, going beyond conventional behavior, thinking outside the box, getting around rules and systems, manipulating technology for fun and profit.

In a way, that dark side of the hacker attitude now pervades politics, business, and the media. Public institutions and private organizations are surveilling, cataloguing, identifying trends, and maniputing public opinion and social behavior.

I suppose it was inevitable that "hacker culture" itself was infiltrated and hacked, to serve an ulterior purpose.

A healthy reaction has been the rise of "maker culture". What is old is new again!

Russia's been having too much fun with the whole "russian hacker" thing (unfortunately with the new semantics). The main tv channel even broadcast a dance number on the theme (to the tune of "Jamaica"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrH8xyJG4rc

At least the meaning of "hacker" is now a somewhat-useful sibboleth, distinguishing between the old school and the poseurs? I may be optimistic, but I'm confident true hackers will always eventually learn the true semantics, when they start learning about their antecedents.

ESR's "How to Become a Hacker" is top two hits for "How to be a hacker" and front page for "how to hack" on google.

Question is, how many people look past the first hit?

Having consistent definitions of words over various geographies and time is a good thing, and we should strive to achieve that.

Throwing up our hands at the corruption of words over time is not helpful.

"Hacker" is like "witch" - you can have good witches and bad witches. But to bystanders that don't want their comfortable paradigm upset by any witchcraft, they're all bad.

The dynamic was especially visible in the 90s when sysadmins and even users would often shoot the messenger for pointing out simple security holes.

Although I agree, I'm a little surprised the "true hacker" community hasn't adopted an alternative title to distinguish themselves.

The "true" hacker community calls criminals "crackers". That term seems to have been lost and was never used in the media. There are also more domain-specific terms like "phreakers".

I believe Stallman uses, or at least used, "cracker" for criminal hacker.

But that's also a slur.

Hackers don't care.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com