What is a hacker?

[bobster65]

Originally Posted by Paul M

A hacker is someone who "hacks" (alters/edits) code, the term got hijacked by the press to mean something bad, when in reality it never was.

This person who says they are a vb hacker simply means they modify vb.

Modifications here used to be referred to as hacks (and still are in many places).

exactly.... the original term for what the media calls Hackers is actually crackers. Crackers were the "bad" guys that cracked into security code where as Hackers were low level programmers.. the media hijacked the term in the mid 80s (1984 if I remember correctly)