[hackerspaces] Out with the "hackers"... In with the "makers" and the "fixers"

[Will Bradley]

I've had great success with this, if the person seems leery of the word
hacker. "We're a hackerspace; that's the good kind of hacker not the bad
kind. We create stuff not destroy stuff."

If they're not leery, I say "We're a hackerspace, basically a community
workshop where you can make stuff." (Most of our space is tools, not
laptops.)

Even the most uneducated of people seem to realize that there are good
hackers and bad hackers. They've seen CSI or the news and heard the cops vs
robbers stories, and they see that we mostly look like productive members
of society, and they get over it. The few quacks who don't, either don't
come in to begin with, or get asked to leave because they're being quacks.
Police officers, city officials, the news, hicks, conservative parents...
all fine. My fears about the word seem unfounded in hindsight.

B F, we get that you don't care about the word hacker. That's fine. But
this is the hackerspaces mailing list; we do. Don't troll.
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