This is a 2025 internet history project by JB.
I’ve always been fascinated by signature codes, which seems to be among the earliest memes on the internet. Each customized Geek Code is a tiny language that also acts as a personality quiz and shibboleth: They were social media profiles before social media existed, expressing “how you want to be seen in your niche community” in a concise secret puzzle, publicized in hopes that the code might catch on or help introduce you to other enthusiasts just like you.
However, these codes are particularly prone to loss: many of these codes were created in the mid-1990s before archive.org crawled the internet as frequently as it does today. If web versions existed, they were often hosted on university web hosts or home ISPs, and those hosts would clear those documents once the code hosts graduated or changed providers. Some of these code keys are already lost, leaving the code users’ identifying messages undecipherable - perhaps permanently so.
The mission of this site is to preserve as many of these codes as possible: linking to the code’s origins, context, version histories, and specifications, and furthermore linking or creating decoders so these codes and their messages can live on.
I’d like to write a proper historical summary soon, but until then, please read the articles below.
This collection is necessarily incomplete: codes could be created in a matter of hours, and the wealth of newsgroups, bulletin boards, mailing lists, and online message boards mean that codes will exist and vanish without leaving a trace. However, I believe I’ve captured most of the major codes with surviving encoded artifacts, and I’m always keen to hear about more.
I would appreciate all contributions and corrections, especially contributions that link documented primary sources and especially for codes without working specifications or encoders already included in the gallery. I would also welcome codes I may have missed. If you’d like to reach me, email hello@sig.codes.
Though many codes make passing reference to the person’s love or sex life, some are particularly centered on adult or “NSFW” (not-safe-for-work) language or concepts. These codes are marked with to signal that they are not safe for work and may further not be safe for minors.
Codes may mention illegal, outdated, or possibly-unethical terms and actions, and inclusion of codes in this gallery is not intended to endorse the codes’ authors, content, or community members. This gallery is intended as a celebration of human creativity and social connection, and is presented to better understand the human cultures around the authors and consumers of these codes at the time they were written.
As a guideline, this gallery includes codes that are decodable that were either posted in public places prior to 2025 or that have at least 25 distinct users. Other codes may be included at the editor’s discretion. Codes that are out-of-scope or that do not appear to have been completed are listed as dead ends. This gallery may decline to include recently-created codes without substantial signs of use.
I’ve tried to mark sources consistently according to the following definitions:
Content on this site is copyrighted and released under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. The codes listed on this site remain the property of their respective owners, and links do not imply endorsement of the content or the authors.
Donath, Judith S. (1996 Nov 12). “Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community”. MIT Media Lab. https://smg.media.mit.edu/people/judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html.
Wolf, Chipper. (2025 Jan 30). “Parafurnalia 3: The Furry Code”. Fang, Feather, & Fin: A Furry History Blog & Archive. https://www.fangfeatherandfin.com/parafurnalia-3-the-furry-code/.
Link: At least 80 signature codes
As part of their thesis Classifying Galaxies, Gays and Geeks - Signature Codes in Usenet Postings, Juhani Anttila produced an excellent list of 82 (“at least 80”) signature codes. Though the list does not have URLs, it still provided a very helpful guide for completeness.
Link: bdaverin's Exhausted Signature File Code Collection (archived 2003-02-04)
Brenda and Bob Daverin compiled a list of signature codes across 1996-1998.
Welcome to the Exhausted Signature File Code Collection. Why Exhausted? You would be, too, if you’d spent two days digging up this information. Being unemployed has its peculiar side effects.
Link: Critter Code (archived 2001-10-27)
The page for Critter Code lists many other codes on its Links page, on its “framed” and “table” representations.
Link: DataPacRat's Code Mirror
Daniel Eliot Boese (“DataPacRat”) helpfully mirrored several codes that have otherwise proven difficult to find.
Link: Goth.Code Homepage (archived 1999-11-17)
Prior to deleting his site, Peter Caffin did a very impressive job cataloguing various other signature codes. This was an excellent resource for finding source files about codes that existed at that time.
Link: Marїnais' private echo (Russian)
Marїnais is author of Phainocode, formerly known as Geek-R: a Geek Code that started as a translation of Geek Code into Russian before diverging into its own structure. Marinais’s website hosts several Russian-origin geek codes and translations of English-language geek codes.
Link: Orion Scribner's Directory of Geek Codes (archived 2016-06-24)
Orion Scribner, author of the 2010-2012 community history book Otherkin Timeline: The Recent History of Elfin, Fae, and Animal People, also produced a thorough list of codes including some not otherwise found.
Orion Scribner can now be found at frameacloud.com.
Link: Queer Resource Directory
The Queer Resource Directory is a long-standing LGBTQ+
resource guide well-connected with soc.motss. This sig code list is cited in
the soc.motss FAQ
as the definitive guide for resource codes used on the newsgroup.
Link: Robin Powell's Code List
Robin Powell, author of their extensive sex code, also provides a helpful linked list of other signature codes.
Link: Too Many Codes! (archived 2001-06-10)
gt42 at the University of Pittsburg assembled and mirrored a number of codes that are otherwise no longer available.