Bear Code

a.k.a. NBCS, Natural Bear Classification System

Author: Bob Donahue & Jeff Stoner

Inspired: Alternative Bear Code, BikeCode, Blogger Code, Butch Code, Goth Code, Pearce Code 🔞, Smurf Code, Twink Code, Zoo Code 🔞

Version 1.9 (1991-02-04)
- Specification (mirror)
Version 1.9.1 (1991-03-24)
- Specification: www.datapacrat.com (mirror)
- Specification: www.qrd.org (mirror)
- Specification: web.archive.org (mirror, archived)
Version 1.9.2 (1991-04-26)
- Specification (canonical)
Version 1.10 (1996-05-07)
- Specification (canonical, archived)
- Encoder (defunct, archived)

Found on:

alt.sex.motss (newsgroup) - (Members Of The Same Sex)

Referenced from:

See also:

Natural Bears Classification System on Wikipedia
"The First Gay Space on the Internet", by David Auerbach (2014-08-20) - Slate Article
Queer Digital History Project: soc.motss
"Bearing It All: The Decoding of the Bear Code", by Lenso (2023-12-01) - published in BearMag, posted to Medium

Subtitled “a classification system for bears, and bear-like men”, the Natural Bears Classification System, often shortened to NBCS or the Bear Code, is the first sig code.

Because “Bears” mean so many things to different people, because bears come in all shapes and sizes and have different sexual proclivities, because classified ad prices are SOOOOOO expensive, we (while eating lunch at a Boulder, Colorado, Wendy’s on Thanksgiving weekend, 1989) came up with this incredibly-scientific system to describe bears and bear-like men.

Since we both have interests in astronomy, we are well-versed in star and galaxy classification systems, which use prototypes to set the standards for describing things. Rather than just saying something is of “Type I” or “Type II” (etc.), it is better to use natural features to describe an object, in particular as a continuum of a range of features. Such is the case with bears.

The code owes its origin to compact stellar classification codes.