[vorg]

> If you're not a developer

* You wouldn't mean software developer, would you? Property, product, and marketing campaign developers interested in a start-up business might not be happy with IT types monopolizing the word "development".

* Years ago when I worked in IT we were only ever called "computer programmers". People called Enterprise Business Software Development Engineers usually couldn't program.

* I've learnt more about programming doing it as a hobby since leaving paid IT work than I ever learnt when working at it. Does my non-software day job mean I'm not a "developer"?

* A doctor, administrator, or marketer learning programming as part of their job could be better placed for automating it than a software developer learning about some domain they want to automate.

[lgas]

> You wouldn't mean software developer, would you?

Of course they mean software developer, because this is a forum for software developers. I wouldn't show up on a site for property, product, or marketing campaign developers and get angry that they were using the word in their context.

[vorg]

> this is a forum for software developers

I always took HN to be a forum for people either starting up a business or into "hacking" things. Of course many software people visit here, probably because many fast-growing businesses over the last 20-30 years have been software based, and/or many products and systems that people hack have a large software component. But HN isn't specifically for software developers as far as I know, and people hacking for growth in the property business shouldn't be classed as "non-developers" on Hacker News.

[lgas]

I'm not trying to say other types of developers are second class citizens. I'm trying to say that when you're standing in a room with 95% software developers, that's "software developer" is the default type of developer, and other developers are the ones that are going to need to clarify. You're standing in a place that is, if not 95% software developers, then 50% software developers + 50 other types of developers at 1% each. Developer is going to mean "software developer" to most people here. That's just a practical reality, not a judgement against other professions.