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Ask HN: Where do the real hackers hangout?

63 points by factorialboy 7y ago

Is it still Freenode / IRC? Why do I ask? I remember 15 years ago, say 2004, technical sites weren't commercial. Except Experts Exchange ofcourse. Nowadays I can't trust opinions of people because I fear they are selling me something. Framework authors are only building frameworks on the side, their real business is building a hosted service for whatever they are building. Nothing wrong with that. I just miss a simpler time. And want a slice of that again.

adreamingsoul 7y ago
I don't imagine that information will be shared here in an open forum.
- factorialboy 7y ago
  Clarification - I don't mean "hackers" as depicted in the movies. I'm referring to nerds, geeks, engineers, tickerers etc. who do it for the love of doing it. Not for building a commercial operation.
- muzani 7y ago
  Why not? It's not pornography, and likely not so taboo on a website called "Hacker News".
neon_me 7y ago
mostly (and still) on the un-encrypted IRC :D
- non-entity 7y ago
  Ok, so hear me out: I'm a young dumb kid, and I just don't get irc. I'll join a supposedly active irc channel for something I'm working on, do whatever the channel wants as far as registering, etc. Once I'm in, nothing. No one seems to be chatting about anything, the only messages I see are logging people joining and leaving. One time I left an irc client open for hours and i finally saw some other human asked a question. After that , more nothing, I don't think anyone replied to them. These servers often show 100s or 1000s online too! Am I doing something wrong, or am I missing something I need to use irc?
  - leetbulb 7y ago
    Some channels are just like that. If you have a question, usually you just ask and wait a while until someone gets around to answer it or have a conversation with you about it. Checking my IRC client since yesterday, there's at least 500 new messages in almost all channels I've joined. Some more popular channels like #linux have constant conversations going.
    - pier25 7y ago
      What server do you use?
      - catacombs 7y ago
        A person's server list is like a little black book. They'll likely not share so other people don't pollute it.
      - leetbulb 7y ago
        Freenode primarily. Plenty of other servers out there for different communities, too.
  - 7y ago
espeed 7y ago
True hackers can see the underlying structure of things others don't see. True hackers have the ability to solve problems others don't see. Real hackers are somewhere learning to see and helping others connect what's true so they can see too.
- dmitryminkovsky 7y ago
  So, Slack?
  - vorpalhex 7y ago
    Riot, Keybase, Freenode, the list goes on...
yummypaint 7y ago
Try your local makerspace
roadbeats 7y ago
I had similar feelings a year ago and wanted to setup a “diet” for my mind; I’d only allow quality information, opinions to enter my mind, not just random stuff. Firstly, the best way to access/find valuable knowledge is still books. Then, I have Freenode open in background for technical conversations, and also follow some good quality podcasts in non-technical subjects; from history to art. If I got a question, I either ask in Freenode or ask trustworthy people by e-mail. No social media. No news websites (except HN). I’m a lot happier with this set of communication and information channels.
- factorialboy 7y ago
  That's a great way to put it - a diet for the mind. On that note, do you mind sharing the list of podcasts you subscribe to?
todd3834 7y ago
I think I’m one of those people you are talking about. I don’t hang out in a secret place. I hang out here, subreddits for languages I’m interested in, many Slack groups for things I’m interested in, iMessage/SMS with current and previous co workers whom are enjoyable to talk to. I also hang out with my family and read a ton of programming books. If you find a secret place with more of these people I would love to know.
silverfox17 7y ago
Freenode is a good place.. the /list command will show you channels once you connect. Popular ones are #hardware, #linux, #windows, #python, #debian, #bash, ##networking, etc. There is a channel for most major technologies.
- wyclif 7y ago
  I spend a lot of time in #python and usually it's quite active and helpful.
- fieryskiff1 7y ago
  The /list command is an old interface for listing server's channels; it won't allow to filter channels by wildcard on Freenode; consider using the Alis bot for paging and filtering: /msg Alis help
- EnderMB 7y ago
  My biggest gripe with Freenode is that a lot of popular channels are silent. Hundreds of users, but all lurking with very little conversation going on. For me, the best channel was always #csharp. Every time I logged in, there was always a group of people talking. Any time I had a question, I could ask it and a handful of people would either give you the answer or would talk you through the problem and help you come up with an answer. That kind of guidance is often lacking from modern programming forums/q&a sites.
  - Jugurtha 7y ago
    >I could ask it and a handful of people would either give you the answer or would talk you through the problem and help you come up with an answer. The best times for me are when members help me come up with a question. I'd have a problem I could vaguely formulate in long paragraphs, and then someone from the #python channel would write down my problem in one concise question of technical writing that is so spot on that I immediately think of the correct solution. The #python (and mailing list) crowd has done this to me so many times.
seapunk 7y ago
I spent a part of my youth on Open Projects network especially in phreaking channels, I think real hackers are still there. Also I think that some of them decided to be more public and start to be active on Twitter or Telegram communities.
gorbachev 7y ago
Please define "real hackers".
- monster99 7y ago
  People who don't sellout to the corporate agenda... watching HN'ers downvote me for pointing out the videogame industry has been stealing PC games for the last 20 years was alarming. We went from owning diablo, warcraft and starcraft games to not owning them... that is a major change and to see a place that calls itself the place of "hackers" and nerds, who theoretically should all be about fighting to preserve culture against the corporate onslaught against our basic rights to own our own software and not have it tied to "the cloud" is disturbing in it's own right. Seems everyone wants to be a slave to the mainframe and have no privacy and no general computing. Not getting that the corporations of the world are hell bent on turning the PC into a dumb client and everyones bending over is disturbing. The stuff Microsoft has in the pipe with UWP and encrypted computing is alarming on its own, "honest files" of the past, not trapped in some vm or some remotely controlled new microsoft file system and license servers for this new Software as a service (aka stealing your software an selling to back to you at inflated prices) is madness itself. There is no reason for any piece of software whether that be an OS, Office application or Game to be divided between our computers and the companies.
  - paulriddle 7y ago
    I see what you're saying. But I'm curious what the future you described will actually look like. I am NOT curious in the least about the good old days. I know it, it's boring to me. Having privacy and total control over your computing is fine, whatever, I've seen it a thousand times already. It's good. But in today's world what is the benefit of that? The market doesn't respond to that, does not reward it. Human psychology likes the alternative of thin client and total survelience much better because it's more convenient and because it already has more momentum. So I'm curious what will happen when you can't do almost anything on your computer without it being inside proprietary cloud. When everything I do is recorded, aggregated, and analyzed by mismanaged big data experts. When real life decisions are made that affect me based on this data by some faceless entity without consulting me. Kind of like what China does with their social credit score but much more elaborate. When there are people who are within this system and those who are outside because they are rich and powerful. It really fascinates me. It can't get so bad as to be intolerable in my lifetime. And what if I become rich and get real power? The ability to make important decisions that change the global landscape. Will I be good or evil? Nowadays rather than complain about the top 0.0001% it's better to put the energy into becoming the top 0.0001%. And by the way, you never owned Warcraft or Diablo. I suspect that to satisfy you all one needs to do is to realse a few really good and engaging games. You shall have your games and you will play them in the evenings. But during the day you WILL write survelience code for collecting plausable reasons to crush somebody inconvenient to the illuminati.
dlphn___xyz 7y ago
group meetups
ScottFree 7y ago
Most likely in private, invite-only chat servers and email lists of various kinds. Anything that's publicly exposed to the internet has too much noise these days. I remember when it was difficult to moderate a chat channel or a web forum back in the 00's. It's much tougher today because of the volume of people you're exposed to. "Only once you can successfully wrestle a herd of monkeys will you truly be ready to manage your forum." https://megatokyo.com/strip/209 https://megatokyo.com/strip/209
- catacombs 7y ago
  > Most likely in private, invite-only chat servers and email lists of various kinds. Anything that's publicly exposed to the internet has too much noise these days. Honestly, this is the best answer. I would argue private IRC channels and servers because the people who use IRC are less likely to use the data-collecting behemoths that are Slack and Discord.
  - paulcole 7y ago
    Didn't the Capitol One hacker brag about it on Slack?
Millennium 7y ago
Mostly the same places they always did. Inertia is strong like that. Most of them miss a simpler time, just like you do, but hey, so it goes.
badsavage 7y ago
In jail
- asp_hornet 7y ago
  Why would they be in jail?
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
johnmarinelli 7y ago
digital - freenode, in person - hackerspaces. try googling hackerspaces in in your town/city. if there aren't any, start your own.
drharby 7y ago
Azeroth
pmoriarty 7y ago
Check out Noisebridge in SF.[1] It and other hackerspaces around the world are full of people tinkering with and making stuff. You only have to stroll around the space to see the fruits of their labor. [1] - https://www.noisebridge.net/ https://www.noisebridge.net/
client4 7y ago
Other peoples boxes /joke
root_axis 7y ago
If you have to ask, you're probably not leet enough to join us... jk, freenode of course!
Daviey 7y ago
There is no such thing as a real hacker. Same as there is no true Scottsman - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman I take issue with "real" hacker categorisation as it implements a gatekeeping barrier for people and the definition of what a hacker is differs between communities.
simonsarris 7y ago
Not hacker specific but IMO its somewhat unfortunate that most of the good/intellectual internet has moved into private chats, secret slacks, etc. This is OK except that it makes it much more difficult for newcomers to find the good thing, so the pipeline is worse. Sometimes nowadays it is hard to discover and be discovered. Twitter still works OK.
rolph 7y ago
what/where lone wolf hackers do to hang out A cheapo router as in goodwill or bargain basement, that has nas functionality, can often find a home in starange places. be creative about using other than factory casings, and find a place to piggyback some power, you will have a dead drop. secure the router with something hackish for a password, and even use LAN encryption. Keep doing this as often, and as wideley as possible, and when you come back to maintain the drop, and review the dropped material to scrubb out the knuckledragger porn and flaming, you can reveal a number of precious gems. it doesnt need to connect to the internet it only needs to be reliable and have storage. you may even get enough access points to mesh them. https://www.instructables.com/id/Wireless-DeadDrop/ https://www.instructables.com/id/Wireless-DeadDrop/ this should give you some ideas as well: https://hackaday.com/2018/06/27/literary-camouflage-for-your-router/ https://hackaday.com/2018/06/27/literary-camouflage-for-your... look for old telephone subscriber boxes or other casings that are common in the wild to put your dead drop into. Im from the era when BBS ing was moby huge, and we would war dial all night to get a list of potential BBSs and other fun numbers that gave a modem handshake.
segmondy 7y ago
github issues

monster99 7y ago
Man your whole post reeks of idiocy. When they control the software they are going to jack up prices and engage in extortion, that's why they want to move software into the cloud and prevent you from having "honest files". You'll need now to pay protection money to decrypt/access them. They want to force you and move you onto their next product/upgrade/service and the more control you give them, the more money you're going to pay. The idea you're going to pay less when you said yourself - the stupid and ignorant masses are ok with being exploited... means prices are going to go up not down because the average consumer isn't sophisticated that means prepare to get bent over and get fucked. You don't seem to understand the basics of big business - they want monopoly profits, and there's no better way of making mad profits then fraud and extortion off the stupid technology illiterate masses. >And by the way, you never owned Warcraft or Diablo. Yes that's because lobbyists bribed one sided intellectual property laws into being so that your basic rights as a member of the public to own softwere and the source code was never part of the agenda, you're the exact type of idiot who is uninformed and politically illiterate. -- Since 1990, The Walt Disney Company had lobbied for copyright extension.[12][13] The legislation delayed the entry into the public domain of the earliest Mickey Mouse movies, leading detractors to the nickname "The Mickey Mouse Protection Act".[4] In addition to Disney, California congresswoman Mary Bono (Sonny Bono's widow and Congressional successor), and the estate of composer George Gershwin supported the act. Mary Bono, speaking on the floor of the United States House of Representatives, said: Actually, Sonny wanted the term of copyright protection to last forever. I am informed by staff that such a change would violate the Constitution. ... As you know, there is also [then-MPAA president] Jack Valenti's proposal for term to last forever less one day. Perhaps the Committee may look at that next Congress --
- paulriddle 7y ago
  You misunderstand me. What if I'm the monopoly who wants to jack up prices and extort? I. Me. And a few select people working for me who I reward, plus a bunch of nameless employees who I don't care about. But primarily me. Then there is no problem is there? Anyways, my apologies. I see I really pinched a nerve here. I will become smarter and understand the basics of big businesses. It's a good thing to do especially if you want to become the monopoly, right?