3 ms·
I run a hackerspace in Victoria, BC. We went through the whole multiple definitions thing with that as well and finally settled on "makerspace" as our identity
by derekja 15y ago
I run a hackerspace in Victoria, BC. We went through the whole multiple definitions thing with that as well and finally settled on "makerspace" as our identity because of negative connotations of the word hacker within the non-tech community.
Within the tech community I view hacker as an entirely positive term, though, and one that seems to fit this community fairly well. Sure, only a portion of the stories are technical in nature, but even the ones that are not are generally about some interesting underlying aspect of business, culture, etc. And that's what hacker implies to me - power through understanding of underlying structure and cause.
I'm pretty new to the community, but glad to have found it!
- bronxbomber92 15y agoI agree, I too am glad to have found HN :) To me, a hacker is much more technical in nature. Reverse Engineering, Assembly, homebrew, etc. are all keywords that come to mind when I think Hacker. The "programmer in his/her dark basement" is a decent stereotype to describe what a hacker meant to be when I first found HN. Your definition of Hacker is equally valid though! I don't think there is an accepted definition for the word, which makes the name all the more misrepresentative to the portion of the population that has a differing definition of Hacker than the HN community/culture.