I was thinking the same while typing that (that due to being somewhat mainstream, "Hacker" News might not be understood for what it is). I personally use the catb.org definition[1], which is quite broad and lists 8 definitions -- if you count the 'deprecated' use of referring to 'computer criminal', which I do count as one of the popular definitions.
[1] http://catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker.html