Geek Code: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 23:50, 22 November 2023

Revision as of 22:01, 10 March 2024

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It was once common practice to use a geek code as one's email or Usenet signature, but the last official version of the code was produced in 1996, and it has now largely fallen out of use.<ref name="wapo">{{cite news |last1=Romenesko |first1=James |title=The Code of the Geeks |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/05/17/the-code-of-the-geeks/764cb760-d6f4-4ba2-860c-e1d1bcc69919/?noredirect=on |access-date=14 November 2018 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=17 May 1996}}</ref><ref name="geekcode"/>

A number of similar codes were developed for other subcultures, such as a Goth Code for the [[Goth subculture]], and the [[The Natural Bears Classification System]] for gay men.

==History==

The Geek Code was invented by Robert A. Hayden in 1993 and was defined at geekcode.com.<ref name="geekcode">{{Cite web |url=http://www.geekcode.com/ |title=The Geek Code |access-date=April 9, 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228200740/http://www.geekcode.com/ |archive-date=February 28, 2009 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> It was inspired by [[The Natural Bears Classification System|a similar code]] for the [[Bear (gay culture)|bear]] subculture - which in turn was inspired by the [[Yerkes spectral classification scheme|Yerkes spectral classification]] system for describing stars.<ref name="jargon"/><ref>{{cite journal |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|journal=Slate |date=August 20, 2014 |publisher=[[Slate.com]] |last1=Auerbach |first1=David }}</ref><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>

After a number of updates, the last revision of the code was v3.12, in 1996.<ref>