From December 1, 2012, until January 31, 2013, a stylistic disagreement unfolded between

editors Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

on the

English-language Wikipedia The English Wikipedia is the primary English-language edition of Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. It was created by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger on 15 January 2001, as Wikipedia's first edition. English Wikipedia is hosted alongside oth ...

as to whether the word "into" in the title of the Wikipedia article for the 2013 film ''

Star Trek Into Darkness ''Star Trek Into Darkness'' is a 2013 American science fiction film, science fiction action film directed by J. J. Abrams and written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof. It is the 12th installment in the ''Star Trek'' franchise ...

'' should be capitalized. More than 40,000 words were written on the article's talk page (a page for editors to discuss changes to the article) before a consensus was reached to capitalize the "I".

Debate

Director

J. J. Abrams Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (born June 27, 1966) is an American filmmaker and composer. He is best known for his works in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Abrams wrote and produced films such as '' Regarding Henry'' (1991), '' Forever ...

planned to release the film ''

'' in April 2013. Its title did not contain a colon after "Star Trek", such as in ''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'' and eight other ''Star Trek'' films. The "I" was to be capitalized in Abrams's April release, but Wikipedia's

Manual of Style A style guide is a set of standards for the writing, Typesetting, formatting, and design of documents. A book-length style guide is often called a style manual or a manual of style. A short style guide, typically ranging from several to severa ...

stipulates that

preposition Adpositions are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various thematic relations, semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositi ...

s with fewer than five letters are not to be capitalized. The full discussion which would decide if Wikipedia should lowercase or uppercase the "I" in the word "into" in the film's title unfolded at the article's talk page from December 1, 2012, to January 9, 2013, and then was picked up again from January 13 to January 31, 2013. The dispute to either adhere to or make an exception to Wikipedia's guideline stretched to over 40,000 words. A major area of the debate concerned whether or not "Into Darkness" was a

subtitle Subtitles are texts representing the contents of the audio in a film, television show, opera or other audiovisual media. Subtitles might provide a transcription or translation of spoken dialogue. Although naming conventions can vary, caption ...

of ''Star Trek Into Darkness'', which was not clear without the colon. If it were a subtitle, as with every other ''Star Trek'' film with a title longer than two words except for ''

Star Trek Generations ''Star Trek Generations'' is a 1994 American science fiction film and the seventh film in the Star Trek (film series), ''Star Trek'' film series. Malcolm McDowell joins cast members from the 1960s television show ''Star Trek: The Original Ser ...

'', then Wikipedia's manual of style would recommend that "Into" be capitalized as the first word in the subtitle. The opposing side argued that it would violate Wikipedia's policy against

original research Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...

to assume that "Into Darkness" was a subtitle, that ''Star Trek Into Darkness'' may have been intended to be read as a sentence, and that it would support the studio's marketing strategy to allow "Into Darkness" to be interpreted as a subtitle. If "Into Darkness" were not a subtitle, then Wikipedia's manual of style would recommend that "into" be uncapitalized as a four-letter preposition. Furthermore, the uncapitalization camp argued that Abrams said that the film's title would not have "a subtitle with a colon". The side in favor of capitalization further argued that both secondary and primary sources used a capital "I". In an outburst, an unregistered Wikipedia editor wrote "READ THE GODDAMN OFFICIAL WEBSITE, YOU POMPOUS IDIOTS". As a compromise, the lead for the article initially read "''Star Trek into Darkness'' (usually written as ''Star Trek Into Darkness'') ..." before consensus was reached for the capitalization of "I".

Reaction and aftermath

On January 30, 2013, Kevin Morris wrote in ''

The Daily Dot ''The Daily Dot'' is a digital media company covering the culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web. It was founded by Nicholas White in 2011, and is headquartered in Austin, Texas. The site, conceived as the Internet's "hometown newsp ...

'', "When it comes to world class

pedant Pedantry ( ) is an excessive concern with formalism, minor details, and rules that are not important. Etymology Pedantry is the adjective form of the 1580s English word pedant, which meant a male schoolteacher at the time. The word pedant orig ...

ry, few groups can challenge the prowess of

Wikipedian The Wikipedia community, collectively and individually known as Wikipedians, is an online community of volunteers who create and maintain Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. Wikipedians may or may not consider themselves part of the Wikimedia m ...

s and ''Star Trek'' fans". During the dispute, cartoonist

Randall Munroe Randall Patrick Munroe (born October 17, 1984) is an American cartoonist, author, and engineer best known as the creator of the webcomic ''xkcd''. Munroe has worked full-time on the comic since late 2006. In addition to publishing a book of the ...

wrote and drew a January 30, 2013, ''

xkcd ''xkcd'' is a serial webcomic created in 2005 by American author Randall Munroe. Sometimes styled ''XKCD'', the comic's tagline describes it as "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language". Munroe states on the comic's website that the ...

'' comic strip both honoring and making fun of the edit war, depicting an editor who resolved the edit war by rewriting the title as "~*~''StAr TrEk InTo DaRkNeSs''~*~". A month after the discussion had ended, the dispute was still interfering with

Google search Google Search (also known simply as Google or Google.com) is a search engine operated by Google. It allows users to search for information on the World Wide Web, Web by entering keywords or phrases. Google Search uses algorithms to analyze an ...

es for ''Star Trek Into Darkness''—searches for the film would return the title with a lowercase ''i'', even though by that point the argument had been decided in favor of the capitalized ''I''. Morris commented that the incident shows the impact small groups of Wikipedia editors can have, especially in situations more severe than a simple capitalized letter. The 2016 ''

Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper b ...

'' article "The Source Code of Political Power", by Simon DeDeo of

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

, used the debate as one example of how Wikipedia is an evolving system of ideas and found comparison to the

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

. Accordingly, DeDeo opined that Wikipedia was moving towards increased complexity, refinement, and bureaucracy.

Notes

References

External links

* , with casing discussion in various sections of the archives {{Wikipedia 2012 controversies in the United States 2013 controversies in the United States Film controversies in the United States Advertising and marketing controversies in film Capitalization December 2012 January 2013 Star Trek (film franchise) Wikipedia controversies Debates English Wikipedia Naming controversies 2012 in Internet culture 2013 in Internet culture

Debate

Reaction and aftermath

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links