actually nowadays hackers can be defined quite broadly. personally I don't care, most of you derive your idea of the term 'hacker' from mainstream news when stories show up about "hackers" that deface some website or steal ssns from a school. here's a good quote on what I'm talking about:
"The difference between hackers and people who just deal with computers for a living, 9 to 5, is quite simple--hackers share a genuine passion for this stuff, they learn and analyze computers just for fun, and hence can more readily see beyond the taught problems and scenarios, invent or explore."
See the article:
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/security/2005/08/25/zalewski.html?page=2
but all the cults I've been in just die out and no one ever posts so I left them all.
The Scoop on Poop:
http://www.heptune.com/poop.html