Geek Code


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.

History

The Geek Code was invented by Robert A. Hayden in 1993 and was defined at 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.
In some parts of the net, it was once common practice to use a geek code as one's email or Usenet signature. One of the consequences of being so old in such a fast-moving field is that much of the geek code now looks rather dated, with the World Wide Web being described as "relatively new and little understood".
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.

Format

Geek codes can be written in two formats; either as a simple string:
GED/J d-- s:++>: a-- C++ ULU++ P+ L++ E---- W+ N+++ o+ K+++ w--- O- M+ V-- PS++>$ PE++>$ Y++ PGP++ t- 5+++ X++ R+++>$ tv+ b+ DI+++ D+++ G+++++ e++ h r-- y++**
...or as a "Geek Code Block", a parody of the output produced by the encryption program PGP:
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GED/J d-- s:++>: a-- C++ ULU++ P+ L++ E---- W+ N+++ o+ K+++ w---
O- M+ V-- PS++>$ PE++>$ Y++ PGP++ t- 5+++ X++ R+++>$ tv+ b+ DI+++ D+++
G+++++ e++ h r-- y++**
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
Note that this latter format has a line specifying the version of Geek Code being used.

Encoding

Occupation

The code starts with the letter G followed by the geek's occupation: 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".
For geeks with multiple occupations, a slash or slashes are used: GMD/TW, for instance, for a geek of medicine and technical writing.

Categories

There are a number of categories in Geek Code, each represented by a letter. For example, the lower-case letter t represents Star Trek. The Geek Code's author has this to say about Star Trek:
Meanwhile, the lower-case letter r represents relationships. Geeks are less associated with relationships than they are with Star Trek, and the Geek Code says this about them:
The Geek Code website contains the complete list of categories, along with all of the special syntax options. The choice of categories reflects what geeks consider important. Categories include appearance, computers, computer-related politics, general politics, computer-related interests, other interests, and lifestyle and sex.

Category-specific modifiers

Although some categories have special syntax, generally each category is followed by a series of + or - signs showing how much the geek agrees or disagrees with the category. For example, t+++ indicates a geek who thinks this about Star Trek:
On the other hand, someone who puts r--- in their geek code feels the following way about relationships:

Modifiers

The meaning of each category can be changed in subtle or not-so-subtle ways using punctuation marks as modifiers. For example, an @ after a category means that the geek's feelings on this category are not very rigid and can change with time, while a dollar sign implies the geek is in the enviable position of being paid for their work in this category. A greater-than sign indicates a "wannabe" rating and means that the person is at a rating indicated before the sign, but wants to reach the one after the sign. A rating in parentheses indicates instability, as does the @, but indicates a specific range rather that the entire rating. The asterisk modifier exists for some categories, expressing a category-dependent "off-the-charts" value: for example, R* is described as "I thought life WAS role-playing?".

Decoding

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