Signature Codes

My niche of internet preservation is signature codes. These codes were once popular in the 80s and 90s and were a quick way of codifying a lot of information into as few characters as possible. This made it easy for those who understand whatever code you're using to know more about you. They fell out of usage in the mid/late 00s, and have been gathering dust since.

This is my collection of signature codes. There are currently 130 archived codes and 21 lost codes. Of those 21, 9 are "truly lost": their websites aren't archived on any archive service and are thus inaccessable. 10 were listed this site but were not found elsewhere, and are marked as "existence unconfirmed" (EU). 2 have been found as codes, but no master document has been found, and their proofs of existence (PoE) are linked.

Last updated 1.3.2025.

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