[beermonster]

I think hackers call themselves hackers. Linus describes himself as a hacker unless he’s talking to the press. In which case he uses the term programmer as they do not understand the term and it only leads to confusion.

Interesting couple of articles from The Register

[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/03/debate_hackers_for/

[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/09/debate_hacker_result/

[jltsiren]

Hackers are those recognized by other hackers as hackers. It's like the tech equivalent of an artist. Describing yourself as one usually sounds pretentious, unless it's clear other hackers/artists recognize you as such.

[beermonster]

Yes and of course their peers who are hackers. But certainly not other IT staff they may work with unless they’re very lucky IMHO