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What are standard internet reference sites for science fiction and fantasy?

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3 Answers 3

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If you ask about an actor, author, book, movie, shows, etc, and the answer is clearly visible on the entry for that actor/author/… on one of these references sites, then your question will be closed as too basic.

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  • and don't forget Google.com
    – HuBeZa
    Commented Feb 25, 2011 at 22:05
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    @hubeza google is a search engine, not a reference site. In some cases answers are directly in the page, but I cant think of any SF/F related cases.
    – Tony Meyer
    Commented Feb 26, 2011 at 19:21
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Per-universe wikis

An answer appearing on these sites is not reason by itself to close as general reference; however if a link to a page with the answer appears high in search engine results, and the page doesn't need improvement (with respect to the question), then a "general reference" vote may be appropriate.

These sites are particularly useful for researching answers to questions within these universes; often a good answer will draw from material here (and elsewhere), and may refer the reader to more detailed (wiki-style) material on these sites.

(grouped by original media type)

Books

Movies

Television

Radio

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  • Note that the top four of these had their own Area51 proposals before being merged here.
    – Tony Meyer
    Commented Feb 25, 2011 at 21:53
  • The guidance from SE as to what is "standard" appears to be whether the site shows up in the first few results in a web search. Against that standard, IIRC all of these would apply.
    – Tony Meyer
    Commented Mar 1, 2011 at 3:30
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    While theoretically a good idea, Slytherincess and others have noted that the Harry Potter wikia sometimes adds information without references, and I've had times where information on Memory Alpha was difficult to find without already knowing the answer to a question (ended up fixing a link based on an answer here). So for most of these, I'd say, they should be used as a reference while creating an answer, but not a reason to close as general reference.
    – Izkata
    Commented Jul 28, 2012 at 17:48
  • @Izkata Did you read the first sentence or the second paragraph of the answer? That's essentially what I said. Note that the answer is also a year and a half old, and dates from the time when general reference was a new thing.
    – Tony Meyer
    Commented Aug 23, 2012 at 9:52
  • Ah, oops.. Been a while, but I think the two titles threw me off: "What are standard internet reference sites for SF?" / "Per-universe wikis". But I do remember, I hadn't realized just how old it was, because it was linked from the recent Rules of Acquisition question.
    – Izkata
    Commented Aug 23, 2012 at 12:08
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    Many of these are somewhat unreliable and inaccurate.
    – ibid
    Commented Mar 30, 2016 at 0:25
  • I would not says these are "standard" refenece sites. I've never heard of 98% of them, and when I was a new SE user I didn't even know about per-universe wikis - so I don't think these should be expected to be used as standard references for asking questions.
    – RedCaio
    Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 1:02
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Not yet completed, but the 3rd edition of the Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction will be on-line and free.

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