Geek Code

The Geek Code was one of the first widespread variants of the Natural Bears Classification System. As Juhani Anttila describes in an appendix for his thesis “Classifying Galaxies, Gays and Geeks - Signature Codes in Usenet postings”, its topics evolved substantially between versions.

The code was first circulated to newsgroup soc.bi, amid a separate conversation ultimately discussing a proposed new bisexuality-oriented code. The Code of the Geeks was then circulated to alt.geek later that day.

Soon thereafter, Geek Code was frequently found in email signatures, though it was also suggested to use an email header X-Geek-Code.

Geek Code makes reference to Kibology, a parody religion discussed on alt.religion.kibology created by James “Kibo” Parry. This was also discussed on the forum itself.

In July 1995 Robert Hayden announced a programming contest requesting assistance writing “some kind of a Geek Code interpretor” [sic] and suggesting the program name ungeek:

I am announcing the Geek Code Programming Contest. I want to get the best and the brightest of the ‘net to write the absolutely bestest interpretors for The Geek Code v3. Prior to this there have been some haphazard attempts at interpretors, but nothing truly organized. The Prize? Absolutely nothing, save the fame of being the writer of one of the programs, mentioned in the code, and having your programs put up on the official Geek Home Page.

Geek Code 3.1’s spec and date have not yet been found; the first reference available is for August 17, 1995.

Robert Hayden was the progenitor of the original Geek Code, but seems not to have been involved in versions beyond 3.12. He made allusions to working on Geek Code 4.0, noting in October 1996 that it “will be out ‘Real Soon Now’”, but no additional information about that work is available.

The list of resources for Geek Code, particularly v3.12, is unlikely to be complete: the code is very popular and is a favorite for geeks to write tools for.

Jorn Barger proposed “a better geek code” in soc.ethics on 1998-04-04. It uses keywords rather than compressed letter tags, and the keywords suggested pertain to the subject’s political and ethical views in particular.

Versions of Geek Code 4.0 and beyond (currently 6.0) seem to be independent, and the group telavivmakers/geek_code GitHub repo has taken over documenting, describing, and evolving the code. Many of the changes to the code happened directly on GitHub, so the versions have a date and commit range rather than a single identifiable version. Many of the links in this section come from that repo; much appreciation to them for archiving and sharing their work.

Media coverage

The Geek Code received 5 pages of coverage in the February 1995 issue of bulletin board magazine Boardwatch.

It was mentioned in a brief paragraph in a Rolling Stone #732 article on page 20 published on April 18, 1996 - which itself was then described in an April 9 edition of the MSU Reporter.

Geek Code was also covered in the Washington Post on May 16, 1996, which was then published several times in modified forms as a syndicated article.