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Comment by jarcane | Hacker News Reader

This article discusses why recently we do not see many hacker groups anymore, and why the ones we do, such as Anonymous and its satellite efforts, do not succeed in having the same cultural impact as their forefathers.

Umm, what? I'm hardly a fan of Anonymous, but I think that's a pretty ridiculous statement on its face. The only reason I've even heard of CCC and the like are because I was a huge nerd who read way too many hacker books as a kid. About the only one of the classic groups I recall even getting any mainstream attention was cDc, meanwhile Anonymous routinely make international news.

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Anonymous is not a "hacker group." Anonymous is an internet mob which happens to have some members who are hackers. LulzSec was a hacker group.

I know that might reek of pedantry, but it's an important distinction because we don't want to contribute to the misconception that everyone associated with Anonymous is a a sooper geenus power user. Large components of the group agree with its goals but don't have special knowledge.

Anonymous has no "members" and isn't a group.

Technically, yes. Practically it's a loose collective with pockets of stronger association.

It is practically a identity for any individual or collective to use to it's own liking. It has long lost it's original meaning.

Uh, that is its original meaning.

I've tended to look at Anonymous as more like a metaphorical "banner" that some people rally around.

> The only reason I've even heard of CCC and the like are because I was a huge nerd who read way too many hacker books as a kid.

That tells me that you are certainly not German and probably also not European.

Since the 80s the CCC was regularly in national German news as well as European. Some of the hacks made worldwide news, I guess (I'm thinking especially of the NASA-Hack and the GSM-Hack).

At least in Germany, one of the reasons we don't see other hacker groups appearing is that the various local CCC groups are the obvious place to go for people who would otherwise found own hacker groups.

Just a couple of observations:

* CCC[1] was not a 'crew'. The CCC IMHO has still a big impact, mostly due to the (extremely?) high technical skill-set of its members.

* The OP writes about cultural impact NOT mainstream attention. In order to get mainstream attention you have to do something trivial like DDOS Yahoo! which was way below the average technical ability of these 'crews' to cause havoc (if they'd like to do so) back in the day.

[1] http://www.ccc.de/en/

I would assume that it's referencing cultural impact in a stricter (sub)cultural sense. The decentralized gulf of Anonymous vs. distinct hacking groups with points of view and identity is largely what the article is bemoaning.

"Notice this does not concern _collaboration_ as much as it does _collectiveness_."

I suppose you're not from Europe or are too young, the CCC made the news a number of times over here. It's probably the biggest and most known group.

Also anonymous actions are kin to those of femen, designed to grab media coverage for free publicity while the media themselves have become more about sensationalism and at the same time more aware of the digital world.

Kids these days...

Or, I was a hacker before it was cool

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