Since it's run by YC and the initial users were mostly YC founders, there is inevitably a startup spin to the stories that are popular here. In fact the site was originally called Startup News. But it turned out to be boring to have so much of a startup focus, so we changed the name and the focus to be more general.

A hacker is someone whose appetite for the universe is never quite satisfied. The hacker seeks to understand: himself, others, what surrounds him, the tools he uses, the things he enjoys, how things fit together. The hacker seeks to build: ideas, means, practical applications, businesses, cultural movements. Some build just one, some build them all. The hacker seeks to learn, to experiment, to solve, and to learn again.

The male pronoun above is of course used merely out of grammatical tradition. Hackers are male and female, young and old. Hackers are in Silicon Valley and in the middle of cornfields, they are in industrialized countries and in developing ones, they date back centuries before the term was coined and will exist as long as does the human condition.

I guess that turned into something of a manifesto. But that's what I believe is embodied in the spirit of the hacker.

or more generally, people who like to tinker for discovery and exploration. code just happens to be the easiest medium in which to do so :)

Glad I'm not the only one that thinks this!

I look forward to participating further and hopefully better furthering my efforts based on what I learn here.

If you look broadly at the topics, discussions and members I think it's somewhat obvious that there's a common denominator in all of this. Hacker news is a collection of intellectually curious people who enjoy interacting with and being challenged by likeminded souls. This is evidenced by the generally well-thought out comments, stimulating submissions and the tendency to downvote comments that aren't interesting or add to the conversation.

Hacker news is simply a place where you can meet other people that value intellectual integrity and a good conversation about an interesting subject whatever that may be.

In other words, an idea that has the potential to change the world, probably in a way that will break somebody's rice bowls (while quite likely creating some new ones).

Like what Craigslist and eBay have done to newspaper classified advertising.

True! I am here because I like HN interface and look. There are other sites that provide articles, submissions and discussions on programming and technology. But none do it as well as HN.

One such site is so full of irritating ads, links to other articles and what not that it becomes nearly impossible to focus on the real thing. At another famous site, I am still unable to understand their comment and karma system.

HN is simple, nice and clean. I would say more productive.

http://paulgraham.com/hackernews.html

That's my honest opinion, can't mod me down for that, right?

- Why was HN created, and/or what is the guiding purpose behind changes?

- Why do people come here?

The former can really only be answered by pg. I'd guess he finds it somehow useful for YC proper. It gives a combination of PR (not quite the right term, but the best I can think of) for YC and a source of information on part of the applicant pool. Again, only a guess. It's also entirely possible that pg just wants to create a good community.

I can give my perspective on the latter. I come here because the quality of the frontpage links tends to be pretty high, and the (median) quality of the comments is even higher.

Because you'll quickly find out who your brethren are, and who should be ignored.

Basically it's a fresh air that I need to breath every day.

YCombinator is a seed stage venture capital firm. The founder of YCombinator started and runs Hacker News, but there is no other affiliation.

The term "things" is intentionally ambiguous because it varies greatly from person to person and includes much more than just technology. Indeed, while hackers usually enjoy playing around with code or electronics, it isn't uncommon for hackers to be well read in completely unrelated subjects such as poetry or martial arts. Such behavior makes sense in light of an inherent playfulness.

It also explains, to a degree at least, the connection to startups. While I'm admittedly ignorant of much of the business world, it seems that startups would be the most "playful" (in sense that startups provide the most room for trial and error). Larger or more established ventures are sort of "on rails." They already have momentum and don't want to jeopardize it so they'll naturally be more hesitant to try new business strategies, especially ones without a proven track record.

Essentially, what defines a hacker is the desire to manipulate ideas and concepts, i.e., an innate intellectual curiosity. Most things on HN fall under that umbrella.

...yeah, like that.