Code words

What are code words?

At many club nights the guest list is not a list of names but a list of words. A promoter or guest gives a password at the door, the door staff find it on their sheet, and the person is let in or handed their reward. Code words are older than any app: crews have used them for years to keep track of who brought whom.

The point is that each code belongs to one person and works once. A name can be misspelt, shared or claimed by someone else further up the queue. A unique code cannot, at least not without its owner noticing. It also saves the door from searching a list of 200 names at one in the morning.

How code words work at the door

The organizer hands out the codes before the night, one per promoter or per group. At the door the promoter says their code, the door person finds it, marks it as used and lets them in or gives them what the code stands for: free entry, a +1, a drink balance at the bar. Once a code is marked, anyone else turning up with it is turned away.

Some crews give each promoter a code their friends can use too ("say DISCO at the door"), so the organizer can count heads per promoter afterwards. The code then works as a tracking tool, much like a discount code in an online ticket shop.

Example: twelve promoters, one door

Say an organizer in Hamburg works with 12 promoters for a warehouse party, and each gets one code for themselves. By 1 am the door sheet shows 9 of 12 codes used. The three unused codes tell the organizer exactly who did not show up, without anyone having to go through a paper list at six in the morning.

Tips for using code words

• Make codes easy to say in a loud queue. Two ordinary words beat a string of letters and numbers.
• One code, one check-in. If a code can be used twice, it stops proving anything.
• Give the door a searchable list, on paper or on a phone, and one person responsible for it.
• Promoters: have your code ready before you reach the front, and screenshot it in case the signal in the queue is bad.

Code words on Parmo

Code words are one of the two ways a Parmo reward is collected; the other is a real ticket by email. Every promoter on an event gets their own two-word code, such as AMBER-FALCON, in the app. The code card appears once they are on the event, but the word stays blurred until their first story for it is live. Then it shows in full, with a button to copy it.

The organizer sees every code on the event page and can copy them all for a printed door list. At the door they open Event → Door, search by name or code and tap Check in. Each promoter can be checked in once and gets a notification that their reward was redeemed. See The door: code words and check-in.

Common questions

What is a code word at a club?

It is a password you give at the door instead of your name. The door staff look it up on their list and let you in or give you your reward.

Can I share my guest list code word?

Usually not. Most codes work once, so if a friend uses yours first, you are the one who gets turned away.