Geek Code
Letters and symbols used by geeks to describe themselves
The Geek Code, developed in 1993, is a series of letters and symbols used by self-described "geeks" to inform fellow geeks about their personality, appearance, interests, skills, and opinions. The idea is that everything that makes a geek individual can be encoded in a compact format which only other geeks can read. This is deemed to be efficient in some sufficiently geeky manner.
It was once common practice to use a geek code as one's email or Usenet signature, but the last official version of the code was produced in 1996, and it has now largely fallen out of use.
A number of similar codes were developed for other subcultures, such as a Goth Code for the Goth subculture, and the Natural Bears Classification System for gay men.
01History
The Geek Code was invented by Robert A. Hayden in 1993 and was defined at https://geekcode.com. It was inspired by a similar code for the bear subculture - which in turn was inspired by the Yerkes spectral classification system for describing stars.
After a number of updates, the last revision of the code was v3.12, in 1996.
Some alternative encodings have also been proposed. For example, the 1997 Acorn Code was a version specific to users of Acorn's RISC OS computers.
02Format
Geek codes can be written in two formats; either as a simple string:
...or as a "Geek Code Block", a parody of the output produced by the encryption program PGP:
Note that this latter format has a line specifying the version of Geek Code being used.
(Both these examples use Hayden's own geek code.)
03Encoding
Occupation
The code starts with the letter G (for Geek) followed by the geek's occupation(s): GMU for a geek of music, GCS for a geek of computer science etc. There are 28 occupations that can be represented, but GAT is for geeks that can do anything and everything - and "usually precludes the use of other vocational descriptors".
Categories
The Geek Code website contains the complete list of categories, along with all of the special syntax options.
04Decoding
There have been several "decoders" produced to transform a specific geek code into English, including:
- Bradley M. Kuhn, in late 1998, made Pete Williams's program available as a web service.
- Joe Reiss made a similar page available in October 1999.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Geek Code”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Código geek, AA 2012.svg by Green Mostaza, Public domain
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