Dude, you sound like an old man shaking your fist as kids walk on your lawn.
"get outta here you damn kids with your damn sub7, back in my day we used to hack the BBS with nothing more than a dial up modem and a captain crunch whistle."
Yes, that's pretty accurate.
Plus this elitism in the hacking scene is my least favorite part of it, why have you gotta be better or different from 'script-kiddies'?
Hacking is about learning, first and foremost. It is, at its very core, in direct opposition to the very concept of 'script-kiddies'. 'Skids', as they're commonly called, are those which do not take the time to learn at all but rather rely upon programs created by others to entertain their 'point, click, hack' lust. To most of us, it's a direct insult for people to use technology that they do not understand nor care about understanding in order to attack others, especially those undeserving of such an attack. It's one thing to use scripts or programs for exploratory purposes as grow in the pursuit of knowledge; it's quite a different matter to use them to be destructive without regard for the time, effort and knowledge that has been put into their creation.
Please imagine that you had spent some time learning quite a bit of material and created a tool to make a complex task far easier. Then you published it to assist others who had reason to use such a utility only to hear a vast number of complaints. Complaints from people who could care less about your efforts, didn't understand how the tool worked or what it was doing. These same people didn't even bother searching Google for an explanation or tutorial. What's worse, is those same people insisting that you are stupid or worthless because you haven't created something that does exactly what they want and how they want. Would you feel a bit insulted?
Real-world example:
http://9v.lt/blog/photobucket-ripper-update/Of course, people can deal with a situation as described above without too much difficulty; flames to /dev/null & all that. But what if you worked hard, studying and practicing, and had achieved some sort of status among worthy peers? Suddenly a large number of people begin discrediting your achievement by making a mockery of all of the effort that you painstakingly went through. If someone spent 6-8 years in seminary school to attain a meaningful title only to see it rendered moot because people could simply get the same status by going to ulc.org and filling out a form, they would probably find that fairly insulting. Likewise, real hackers, feel insulted by those who would call themselves the same without regard for the meaning behind the title.
Hacking, again, is about learning, after all. Those unwilling to learn are therefore disqualified from legitimately calling themselves hackers. So we created a new title for them. Hackers
ARE different from script-kiddies. And, as hackers, one should always be trying to better themselves and their knowledge. Therefore real hackers are also definitively better than script-kiddies.
Yes, it's elitism, but it's constructive elitism.
Saying that I do find the history lesson interesting, but common, come back to earth a bit please. If you don't like the ignorance then focus your attention on teaching people, not complaining.
This is precisely what I focus on. I teach, tutor, educate, instruct, inform, demonstrate, edify, guide, illuminate, edify, coach, explain, train, 'learnimicate'..and I do so often. For example, the previous post was a history lesson, as you observed. Once upon a time this very community was filled with ignorance and as a result of the efforts of the more knowledgeable people here, it has since become a community that promotes learning and understanding. It is what makes this a "place to be" for those looking to learn.
