I always read it as "Hacker" in the traditional sense of the term, not the alarmist media "OMG!!H4qq0r" sense of the word. Hacking used to simply mean programming.

Let it go man, the days of hacker meaning anything other than "dude that uses a computer" are dead. I know what you mean, I remember the "hacker" ethos that was willing to throw middle fingers in the air EULA, but this crowd doesn't even seem aware of the difference between that crowd as "hackers" and people popping boxes as "hackers." Or the handful of other types of people covered by the always-vague "hacker". The internet community you're looking for is no longer a sizable portion of the people into tech, personalities expanded as as the field grew. And you're sure not going to find what you're talking about in a corner where the people here primarily for money congregate.

To summarize, the internet pissing match between if it meant "cracker" or something more akin to "respected technologist" was won by a late entrant: "using the cachet a label the former two groups built to sell a job to someone that is neither."

Or, to summarize the summary: The moment Paul Graham's writing told me I was a hacker, I knew I irrevocably wasn't.

Perhaps it's actually "Hacker" News.

Hacker != Cracker