Goth Code

The Goth Code is a very well-used code, but also one that is hard to find: The most recent official version, GothCode 98, reportedly had all of its copies pulled down at the request of the author.

GothCode 98 is also interesting in that it is one of the few machine-decodable codes, using “6-bit ASCII byte encoding”. To use the examples from a GC98-producing tool, Gabi, GothCode 3.1A might look like this, approximating the same category-modifier types as in bear code and geek code:

GC98 uses a base64-like “grey table” of 65 values (a = 0, a-z, A-Z, 1-0, !, #, $ = 64). Codes from GC98 might look like this:

Peter Caffin later pointed to the similarity between Goth Code and Whore Code as a possible act of plagiarism.

Appearance in the Columbine Report

Goth Code appeared in the ~11,000 page Columbine Report, in a section titled “A closer look at the people who wear black in Secondary Schools across the United States”, dated 1999-04-23 and reportedly assembled by Lakewood High School teacher Tim Harp shortly after the shooting.

As Allen Berres wrote in the abstract of 2002 Children’s Folklore Review article “Everybody Is Their Enemy”: Goths, Spooky Kids, and the American School Shooting Panic:

One of the earliest details to leak out about Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold following their horrifying shooting spree at Columbine High School was that they were supposedly members of a clique that called itself “The Trench Coat Mafia.” This name was readily snapped up by the journalists covering the story, and by the evening following the shootings, numerous news organizations were running pieces about this group in an attempt to shed greater light on the reasons why Harris and Klebold killed thirteen people and themselves. Although the Trench Coat Mafia clique was confined to Columbine High School, journalists quickly pointed out many supposed links between this clique and two larger music fan cultures whose members occasionally wear black trench coats that are found in almost every American high school: goths and Marilyn Manson fans. A wave of anti-goth, anti-Marilyn Manson sentiment immediately followed this over-hasty association, motivated by the overwhelming fear that any member of these black-clad legions could turn out to be the next school shooter.

The excerpt in the report contains only the Goth Code 3.1A header and introductory paragraph as well as an instance of the Goth Code apparently posted with “The Suicidal Aspects of Gothics: The Dominion of the Dark Sinner”. There is no indication of any use of the Goth Code attributed to anyone involved in the shooting, but its inclusion demonstrates how the teacher and report viewed Goth Code among “the secret codes that they use on the internet” (as on page 5753).

The report has been uploaded in 100-page chunks; the Goth Code references appear on pages 5770 and 5771 under a heading labeled “The Gothic Sub Culture”. Though only the initial page appears in the documents, it does include date information and a description of the difference between Goth Code 3.1 and 3.1A.