Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Complaints about the terms are 'no true Scotsman...' arguments. DDOSing and Botnet attacks are crude, brute-force attacks, but finesse has never been a requirement for a good hack - it's the icing on the cake but ultimately it's the result that matters. Being pompous about terms just comes across to the general public as nerd rage, much like gun aficionados whining about terminological niceties following reports of a mass shooting incident.


> Complaints about the terms are 'no true Scotsman...' arguments.

They really aren't.

> Being pompous about terms just comes across to the general public as nerd rage, much like gun aficionados whining about terminological niceties following reports of a mass shooting incident.

Words matter. If some fools are caught with a Molotov cocktail and the media starts reporting that they had a "nuclear weapon" because gasoline contains some radioactive carbon-14, the sane people are the ones telling anyone who will listen how stupid that is.

Calling those who maliciously break shit "hackers" is like calling those who drink too much "Irishmen." It's an offensive misuse of the word.


Words matter, but that doesn't mean one group gets to establish the definition that suits itself. 'Hacker' has been used in popular culture to include malicious computer activity since the 1980s, notwithstanding the existence of the jargon file, and folks such as yourself have been grumbling about that not being 'the true meaning' just as long. The fact is that you don't own the word, and the negative meaning has at least as much common currency as the nerdy one.

Words matter. If some fools are caught with a Molotov cocktail and the media starts reporting that they had a "nuclear weapon" because gasoline contains some radioactive carbon-14, the sane people are the ones telling anyone who will listen how stupid that is.

Wildly disproportionate analogies are not a good way to get taken more seriously.


> 'Hacker' has been used in popular culture to include malicious computer activity since the 1980s

I don't think his point is that the term shouldn't be used in a negative way, but that the negative way is more along the lines of someone who breaks in to computers, not just floods them with a bunch of packets. Is someone who pours water on a computer and fries the circuits a hacker now too? Petty vandalism just doesn't seem the same as actually gaining unauthorized access, which is how I've always understood to be the popular definition of the word.


I'm old enough to remember when 'hacker' meant exactly that. Now its hip to be called a hacker; does that change its meaning? What does it mean to be a 'gangsta'?

Languages change. That doesn't mean its offensive when somebody still uses the old meaning, because its how they grew up using it.


Ask anyone under 30 what they think a Phreaker is I bet they wouldn't have a clue, "phone freak" even the word freak these days may be misinterpreted too since it meant someone really into some hobby.

Maybe we should call this script kiddies "scriddies" since it seems the average Joe and TV/newspapers like a single catchy word.


Sure, languages change, but not in a vacuum. If the media starts using the word "businesswoman" to mean an infertile woman, the jackasses are not the people who object to that usage.


Well, it's probably a little late to save the term. Job descriptions for devs routinely state they are looking for "hackers" with Ruby. Not to mention, we're commenting on a site called "Hacker News", which features more posts about NASA and the latest JS framework than anything "Hacker".

Words do matter, but some are abused to a point wherein they take on new meanings; grating as that may be for those who knew and appreciated the original meanings.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: