<story><title>The early 90s tech scene that created L0pht, the legendary hackerspace</title><url>https://cyberscoop.com/boston-l0pht-hackers-tech-scene/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hereforphone</author><text>I&amp;#x27;d like to post my perception since I was a 90s hacker.&lt;p&gt;Inclusivity is arbitrary here - no one in the scenes that I was familiar with were excluded because of race or sex - it&amp;#x27;s just that certain demographics weren&amp;#x27;t attracted to that &amp;#x27;scene&amp;#x27;. Those like me, ADHD, awkward, and not extremely socially capable at the time, were however sometimes excluded. There were still the cool nerds and the lame nerds. I was pretty involved in the scene, being a staff writer of 2600 (several articles published under various handles, my name listed in the cover for a couple of years), and spending some time talking to &amp;quot;famous&amp;quot; people.&lt;p&gt;Later I grew up, spent 4 years in the military, then used money I earned to finally go to college, graduating eventually with an engineering Master&amp;#x27;s in my 30s. As I grew up I realized that the whole 90s &amp;#x2F; early 2000s hacker scene was mostly just a social clique.  I learned that many people who were revered had marginal skills. I learned that the paranoia and self-aggrandizement (&amp;quot;The FBI totally monitors #2600 to learn our skills&amp;quot;) was really just immaturity. The whole thing eventually seemed lame as I grew into an adult. I realized 2600 was really just a money machine and a manipulative scheme. Phrack went downhill quick, sadly (I also published there).&lt;p&gt;Still, this was a classic and wonderful time.  Even &lt;i&gt;I&lt;/i&gt; made friends - some that I talk to now, 20+ years later. I learned a lot. I got started on a tech path that took me very far and into regions of tech I&amp;#x27;d never learn about otherwise like radio and telephone. I&amp;#x27;m still a hacker, but legally. I don&amp;#x27;t miss the &amp;quot;scene&amp;quot; at all, but I do wish I was more included in it at the time. As this article illustrates it must have been great.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bink</author><text>I generally agree, but some of those claims were true. It wasn&amp;#x27;t entirely immaturity. I was part of the group at the 2600 meeting near the Pentagon that got raided by Secret Service dressed up like mall security. They conducted some busts a few weeks later based on things illegally confiscated from that raid.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.2600.com&amp;#x2F;secret&amp;#x2F;pc&amp;#x2F;pc-pressrelease.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.2600.com&amp;#x2F;secret&amp;#x2F;pc&amp;#x2F;pc-pressrelease.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&amp;#x2F;archive&amp;#x2F;politics&amp;#x2F;1992&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;hackers-allege-harassment-at-mall&amp;#x2F;5f5e756f-806e-485e-962b-0a5f71635c81&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&amp;#x2F;archive&amp;#x2F;politics&amp;#x2F;1992&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;h...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>The early 90s tech scene that created L0pht, the legendary hackerspace</title><url>https://cyberscoop.com/boston-l0pht-hackers-tech-scene/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hereforphone</author><text>I&amp;#x27;d like to post my perception since I was a 90s hacker.&lt;p&gt;Inclusivity is arbitrary here - no one in the scenes that I was familiar with were excluded because of race or sex - it&amp;#x27;s just that certain demographics weren&amp;#x27;t attracted to that &amp;#x27;scene&amp;#x27;. Those like me, ADHD, awkward, and not extremely socially capable at the time, were however sometimes excluded. There were still the cool nerds and the lame nerds. I was pretty involved in the scene, being a staff writer of 2600 (several articles published under various handles, my name listed in the cover for a couple of years), and spending some time talking to &amp;quot;famous&amp;quot; people.&lt;p&gt;Later I grew up, spent 4 years in the military, then used money I earned to finally go to college, graduating eventually with an engineering Master&amp;#x27;s in my 30s. As I grew up I realized that the whole 90s &amp;#x2F; early 2000s hacker scene was mostly just a social clique.  I learned that many people who were revered had marginal skills. I learned that the paranoia and self-aggrandizement (&amp;quot;The FBI totally monitors #2600 to learn our skills&amp;quot;) was really just immaturity. The whole thing eventually seemed lame as I grew into an adult. I realized 2600 was really just a money machine and a manipulative scheme. Phrack went downhill quick, sadly (I also published there).&lt;p&gt;Still, this was a classic and wonderful time.  Even &lt;i&gt;I&lt;/i&gt; made friends - some that I talk to now, 20+ years later. I learned a lot. I got started on a tech path that took me very far and into regions of tech I&amp;#x27;d never learn about otherwise like radio and telephone. I&amp;#x27;m still a hacker, but legally. I don&amp;#x27;t miss the &amp;quot;scene&amp;quot; at all, but I do wish I was more included in it at the time. As this article illustrates it must have been great.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>aestetix</author><text>It sounds to me like part of your growing up was realizing that the people you looked up to were human, and it shattered some illusions you had.&lt;p&gt;In truth, pretty much every social &amp;quot;scene&amp;quot; has a small core of dedicated people surrounded by a much larger social clique. This becomes more and more true as it grows in size. There will always be the &amp;quot;talkers&amp;quot; who are good at communicating but have &amp;quot;marginal skills,&amp;quot; but I&amp;#x27;d argue everyone has different strengths. For example, there are some absolutely excellent hackers who are terrible writers, and other people who write quite well &lt;i&gt;about&lt;/i&gt; hacking, but cannot hack themselves. We need both types.&lt;p&gt;While quite a lot of the worry about government monitoring might actually be paranoia, I&amp;#x27;ll simply note that Snowden&amp;#x27;s relevations showed that a lot of the fears were justified. Perhaps there are tradeoffs in privacy that you are willing to make, which others refuse to make.</text></comment>