The Geek Code was invented by Robert A. Hayden in 1993 and was defined at geekcode.com.<ref name="geekcode">[http://www.geekcode.com/ geekcode.com (dead in 2016); archived link from 2000: https://web.archive.org/web/20000816084557/http://www.geekcode.com/geek.html ] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228200740/http://www.geekcode.com/ |date=February 28, 2009 }}</ref> It was inspired by [[The Natural Bears Classification System|a similar code]] for the [[Bear (gay culture)|bear]] subculture<ref name="jargon"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2014/08/online_gay_culture_and_soc_motss_how_a_usenet_group_anticipated_how_we_use.2.html|title=The First Gay Space on the Internet|publisher=[[Slate.com]]}}</ref> - which in turn was inspired by the [[Yerkes spectral classification scheme|Yerkes spectral classification]] system for describing stars.<ref>Unlike the Geek Code, the Yerkes system uses classes, subclasses and peculiarities for categorization. These systems differ in their [[orthogonality]]: the Geek Code is very [[Orthogonal (computing)|orthogonal in the computer science sense]] (where variables may be [[Projection (linear algebra)|projected]] onto [[basis vectors]]), where the Yerkes system is very [[Orthogonality#Taxonomy|orthogonal in the taxonomic sense]] (representing mutually exclusive [[class (computer science)|classes]]).</ref>
In some parts of the net, it was once common practice to use a geek code as one's email or Usenet [[signature block|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".
