Geek Code Explained

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.^[1]

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.^[2]

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.

History

The Geek Code was invented by Robert A. Hayden in 1993 and was defined at geekcode.com.^[3] 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.^{[4] [5]}

After a number of updates, the last revision of the code was v3.12, in 1996.^[6]

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.^[7]

Format

Geek codes can be written in two formats;^[3] 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.)^[8]

Encoding

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".^[3]

Categories

The Geek Code website contains the complete list of categories, along with all of the special syntax options.^[9]

Decoding

There have been several '"decoders" produced to transform a specific geek code into English, including:

• Bradley M. Kuhn, in late 1998, made Williams' program available as a web service.^{[10] [11]}
• Joe Reiss made a similar page available in October 1999.^[12]

See also

• Leet
• Newspeak
• Signature block

External links

• Robert Hayden's official Geek Code web site (presenting v3.12)

Notes and References

1. Book: The cultures of computing . registration . 10–20 . Wiley . Susan Leigh Star . Susan Leigh Star . 1995. 9780631192824 .
2. News: Romenesko . James . The Code of the Geeks . 14 November 2018 . Washington Post . 17 May 1996.
3. Web site: The Geek Code . April 9, 2004 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090228200740/http://www.geekcode.com/ . February 28, 2009 . bot: unknown .
4. The First Gay Space on the Internet. Slate . August 20, 2014 . . Auerbach . David .
5. Unlike the Geek Code, the Yerkes system uses classes, subclasses and peculiarities for categorization. These systems differ in their orthogonality: the Geek Code is very orthogonal in the computer science sense (where variables may be projected onto basis vectors), where the Yerkes system is very orthogonal in the taxonomic sense (representing mutually exclusive classes).
6. Web site: Serge K. Keller. An archival copy of The Code of the Geeks v3.12.. May 8, 2017.
7. Web site: The Acorn Code – Geek Code Supplement. May 5, 2011. Parker. Quintin. 1997. https://web.archive.org/web/19970713210304/http://www.werewlf.demon.co.uk/quintin/code.html. July 13, 1997. The problem is, for us Acorn users, is that it asks you quantify all your opinions of UNIX and PC programs, whereas many of us wouldn't even touch them with a bargepole!.
8. Web site: geek code . The Jargon File (version 4.4.7) . 16 November 2018 . August 14, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180814154444/http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/G/geek-code.html . dead .
9. Web site: Robert Hayden . geekcode.com . geekcode.com . March 12, 2013 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090228200740/http://www.geekcode.com/ . February 28, 2009.
10. Web site: The Geek Code Decoder Page . Ebb.org . March 12, 2013 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130301204113/http://www.ebb.org/ungeek/ . March 1, 2013 . mdy .
11. The site first appears in the Internet Archive on December 7, 1998 (Web site: Geek Code Decoder history at the WayBack machine . The Internet Archive . December 7, 1998 . January 5, 2008 . dead . https://archive.today/20130414153627/http://www.ebb.org/ungeek/ . April 14, 2013 . mdy .).
12. Reference to the site first appears in the Internet Archive on October 7, 1999(Web site: Geek Code Decoder history at the WayBack machine . The Internet Archive . February 9, 1999 . October 5, 2016 . dead . https://archive.today/20161005144259/http://www.joereiss.net/geek/ . October 5, 2016 . mdy.).