Talk:Hack

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Contents 1 Taxi Driving 2 Meaning and disambiguation 3 Merging 4 Clarification

[edit] Taxi Driving

Hey guys. To 'hack' or 'hacking' can also mean driving a taxi for a taxi company, especially when you don't own the taxi. I think this is seperate from hackney carriage, so I put this definition underneath it.

--69.138.61.168 00:37, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunately, a wikipedia disambig page is different from other wikipedia articles in that it's not a comprehensive article about the word, but an index of articles someone might have been looking for when they typed "hack". The wiktionary link is there to provide all the fine points about meanings and usages.

The usual criteria for whether to link an article in a disambig page is whether 1) someone might have been looking for that article by using that term, and 2) whether that article has information related to that term. Re the particular usage you're citing, there's no information in the taxicab article about the distinction between owning your cab and driving someone else's cab.

I don't deny that your usage has more complex meaning than merely slang for "hackney carriage", but the information you want to dismabig towards isn't there. If there was a section elaborating on driver-owners and driver-employees, I'd be a lot more comfortable with including the link. As it stands now, however, it feels like we're sending people to taxicab in search of information that isn't there.

So... Do you want to begin a section in taxicab about owner-drivers and employee-drivers? ;-)       Sanguinity 04:20, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Meaning and disambiguation

See hack writer, a new stub article. "Hack" doesn't mean "lacking in talent"; "hack" means "for hire". A writer paid to put others' thoughts into felicitous verbiage is a hack. Some hack writers are very talented. Michael Hardy 19:58, 13 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I agree it's a mess. Since I don't think any use is the clear winner (in the real world as a whole), I'd be OK with moving the MIT/computer slang stuff (I don't think it would work to try and separate those two, they are so deeply intertwined) to something like hack (technology slang), and turn hack into a redir to hack (disambiguation). Of course, then we'd have to go fix every page that references hack, but that's probably a good idea anyway, I'd expect that more than a few are to the wrong "hack" anyway. Noel 02:53, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I've made this an honest, if not spectacular, disambiguation page. It was an incredibly stupid-looking page: it said "For other meanings, see hack (disambiguation), and then, instead of writing about one primary meaning, rambled on about a hodgepodge of nearly unrelated meanings. There's no need for a page titled hack (disambiguation), unless the page titled hack is something other than a disambiguation page. Michael Hardy 01:16, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well, like I said, I agree it was a mess, and making it a disambig page was the right call. However, "hack" and "hacker" have important differences, and you can't just redirect to "hacker". There needs to be a hack (technology slang) page. That's not the greatest name for it - do you have a better one? I'll retrieve the content related to that meaning and whack that page into shape - you can do all the other ones. Noel (talk) 01:40, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

For the new page, perhaps "Hack (computer)" or "Hack (digital)"? A one-word encapsulation of the concept of "The Digital Age" would be totally appropriate, but I'm not sure such a word exists. Marblespire 05:56, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Merging

I think that's a spectacularly bad idea. First, there are a number of meanings to "hacking" that don't apply to "hack", and vice versa (e.g. one doesn't normally think of calling the activities of either hack writers or party hacks as hacking; and the action one does when one slashes with a machete isn't a hack), without even getting into things like Hack (television series), not to mention the use of "hack" as a noun ("clever hack") and a verb ("he started to hack because of his flu"). Second, each of these lists is long enough already; joining the two is going to produce a massive mess. We've got enough trouble already with all the subtly different meanings of "hack", "hacker" and "hacking" as they relate to technology (over the spectrium from clever tricks -> unauthorized modifications -> criminal activity), let's not make it worse, huh? Noel (talk) 23:43, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

OTOH, there is a fair bit of duplication across the two pages... Graham 00:28, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

Absolutely; there's no "perfect" solution. Yes, the duplication is not good, but the disadvantages of a merged page outweigh the disadvantages of the two separate pages. Noel (talk) 19:28, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

The best solution, IMHO, is to merge hacking into hack and to contentualize terms that are only used in the form "hacking" and not "hack". -Sean Curtin 00:56, August 30, 2005 (UTC)

Hacking, Hacker, and Hack are not all the same thing. Like a book used to steady a table or a gun used to open a door, a hack is a expression of a deep understanding of what is possible and what is not. A hacker has a fierce desire to know more about this, and understands that just because something may be meant for one thing does not mean it can not be used for another. In the computer world these skill sets manifest as the ability to code and build computers from parts, in music they manifest as the ability to restring a guitar or use a reverb to get more base. All things have hackers, just as there is a hack in all things. Tis need to be a point made in each artical, and the idea of a Hacker only being a computer thing needs to be addressed. There are music hackers too you know, and electical hackers, writing hackers. -User:Belgarath_TS

There should be no merge. The idea that hacking is primarily a computer term, is a classic POV of the type which the page Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias was created to warn against. For those in the horse riding comunity the words hack and hacking have a completly different meaning, using google:

• about 131,000 English pages for Hacking horse site:uk.
• about 533,000 English pages for Hacking computer site:uk.

--Philip Baird Shearer 10:44, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Clarification

Both hack, hacking, and hacker have poorly authored disambiguation pages. I'm going to attempt to clarifiy all three. Pandemic 05:55, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Then, taxicrab.

Hopiakuta 18:46, 29 July 2006 (UTC)