The Dragon Code
There is a large and thriving community of dragon fans on the web. Some people are just interested in dragons, some see dragons as symbolic to their lives, some like to think that in a way they themselves really are dragons. If you're interested, take a look at alt.fan.dragons
In order to easily identify dragons, the community has created the Dragon Code. This is a way of encoding any dragon or similar creature into a short string of characters. Many dragon fans include a Dragon Code in their .sig
As an example of the Dragon Code in action, the typical Western dragon might be coded as:
DC2.Dw Gm L^ Phwtlf Sks Cgr Bfl A++ Nm H+++! $ J---! I++Whereas the typical Eastern dragon might be coded as:
DC2.De Gm L+ Phtf Sks A+++! Nw Q+++Simple, isn't it? :-)
Really, it is simple. "DC2" means dragon code version 2. "De" means "Dragon - Eastern". "Bfl" means "Breath weapon - flame". "H+++!" means a massive hoard of gold. Etc, etc.
For more information on the Dragon Code including all the codes detailed and links to online code generators, see dragoncode.org .