Conventions

Calendar (World of Warcraft)

• The calendar used by in-character World of Warcraft works is a compromise between ingame Horde timekeeping and the real-life Gregorian calendar.
• The year is based on year zero's being placed on the year of the opening of the Dark Portal. The era after year zero is called the Era of Shame (ES), signifying the complications suffered by the orcish Horde at the time and the repercussions (political or otherwise) being suffered now. The era before year zero is Before the Era of Shame (BES). The duration of the years is in compliance with the conclusions at http://www.wowpedia.org/Timeline_(unofficial).
• The day and month are based on the Gregorian day and month within a given year. The month is denoted by number rather than name (e.g. November is month 11).
• Twelve unique months are recognised and an ingame year may have any number of months, with the number of actual months elapsed in real life scaled pro-rata to the year(s) progressing ingame over the same real-life period. Where the pro-rating causes more than one of the same month to occur within the same year, they are numbered, with that number being expressed in parentheses and suffixed to the month (e.g. 11(2) reads "the second November [of the year]").
• The first day and month of the year is the real-life (Gregorian) day and month on which the (ingame) year starts; it need not be January (month 1 in the Gregorian calendar).
• This pro-rating allows the real-life day and month to be imprinted on the calendar. The date can be read like a Gregorian date, only with the year ingame.
• This pro-rating is justified by the integration of a Gregorian calendar in the World of Warcraft user interface and the convenience of dating events as they are revealed in real life.
• Dates are expressed in the form: [day]st/nd/rd/th day of [month]"("[multiple of month]")" (B)ES [year]. (e.g. "23rd day of 11(2) ES 33", which reads "the 23rd day of the second November of ES 33")

Interview transcripts

• Interview transcripts generally resemble World of Warcraft chat logs.
• Participants to the interview can perform four general actions:
1. Say something (denoted by says, /say or /s)
2. Yell something out (denoted by yells, /yell or /y)
3. Say something in a private chat channel, such as whisper (whispers, /whisper, /w), party (/party or /p) or raid (/raid or /ra) chat; whispers designate a target
4. Emote (denoted by null, /emote or /e)
• Emotes are expressed in the third person.
• Words said/yelled generally are expressed in the hypothetical universal language (the collection of all languages that the interview transcript can be translated to and presented in) in storage and translated into the vernacular on presentation. Use of the original language can be retained where appropriate, such as where:
• Translation would materially change the connotations of the words
• The words were imported into the vernacular
• The translation is popularly known
• [Square] bracketed text traditionally signifies implications and provided context. Their precise meaning depends on the position in the chat line:
• If before the action, it is the participant's username. This is a simplified name or alias different from their full name. An index before the chat text (usually headed "participants" or "cast") corresponds username with full name.
• If between say/yell and the words said / yelled out and the opening bracket is followed by a colon, it describes the way the words are said / yelled out. Separated by a semicolon, the first part identifies the language spoken and the second part describes the tone. Where the language is null, it is implied that the universal language is used, and where the tone is null, it is implied that a neutral tone (given the say/yell) is used.
• If within words said/yelled, it gives context not evident by reading the words normally.
• If within an emote description, it gives the target (designated by username) of the emote. The emote description can be worded to abolish implications, doing away with the use of brackets in the descriptions of the other actions.
• A colon separates the name and action from the rest of the line in all actions except emotes.
• A computer program can parse the interview transcript where:
• Emotes are not designated as null (see point 2.4)
• Usernames and a resolving username index are used (see point 5.1), especially for emotes
• Lines of chat are expressed in the form: [name] [action](:) ([:[language];[tone]]) [description]
• Entries in the username index are expressed in the following form: [full name] "["[username]"]"

Press embargoes

• Media outlets use embargoes to control when a journalistic article can be released to the public. This allows the media outlet to review the subject matter in detail so as to give it sufficient treatment in the article being written.
• Critically Analyse uses two types of embargo which differ on importance that it be adhered to:
• The (soft) embargo, where adhering to it is encouraged yet breaching it is possible. Doing so with a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) effective on it may result in lawsuits for breach of contract. This is the classic embargo used in the real-life media.
• The hard embargo, where breaching it is impossible without the use of time travel. This may be applied to articles where the events described within has not been experienced by anyone at time of writing. Where time travel does allow it to be breached, doing so may cause time paradoxes that damage the spacetime continuum.
• Readers of a fictional narrative can travel through time in it, and in doing so, know the futures of the characters in it before the characters experience said futures. Where the reader interacts with the narrative (e.g. playing computer games such as World of Warcraft), it is possible for them to breach any hard embargo on any journalistic article originating from the setting.
• The application of a soft embargo is at the discretion of and/or compulsion against the news outlet. The nature of the article determines whether a hard embargo is in effect, and it is the duty of the news outlet to assess that nature to identify any possible hard embargoes.
• Where multiple soft embargoes are decided, the one of longest duration is applied where it is equally or more enforceable than all of the others. Where multiple hard embargoes exist, the one of longest duration takes effect and effectively performs the work of all of the other hard embargoes.
• A hard embargo supplants any soft embargo where the date of the former is later than that of the latter. Provided that any soft embargoes applied are strictly enforced, they will supplant hard embargoes where the date of the soft embargo is later than that of the hard embargoes.
• "Immediate release" means the date of the article. This effectively implies zero duration.

Usernames (World of Warcraft)

• World of Warcraft usernames resemble usernames as expressed in a cross-realm dungeon or battleground situation.
• The format used distinguishes duplicate usernames across different realms and regions.
• World of Warcraft usernames are expressed in the form: [username]-[realm]-[region]