A contributor recently asked me about whether or not to add something in the YANNI category. It was a detail that the editor in question felt was a clear YANNI, but that I felt was too ambiguous to be a YANNI. So, after a bit of discussion with other community members, I thought I would write a small post about what is and isn't considered a YANNI.
According to our YANNI category page, the definition is as follows:
YANNI is an acronym for Yet Another Notable Nora Inconsistency ( Noticeable and Nonsensical have also been used in place of Notable) Some listings include mistakes made in the In Death Series, inconsistencies, oddities, or different names given for the same item. Some may be genuine mistakes, while others may simply be items of interest. For the most part, grammar/spelling errors in the series have been ignored (i.e. Eva for Eve and/or Rourke for Roarke and/or Sommerset for Summerset).
YANNI's should be limited more to mistakes or inconsistencies within the writing itself or within what is considered canon for the series, and not just personal opinion about random things that an individual reader might find odd.
For example: in Kindred in Death (June 2060), Bella Eve was said to be six months old; if she was born at the end of January, she would barely be five months old. This is clearly a mistake made by the author, albeit a very minor one. But because it's a clear mistake, it qualifies as a YANNI.
On the other hand, in Desperation in Death, Eve makes a reference to Ferengi (A reference to a race of people from the Star Trek franchise):
Snatches of conversation—that might as well have been Ferengi—cut through it as the e-team communicated.
Now, one could argue that canon for this series is that Eve doesn't know anything about pop culture references, so wouldn't have really known enough about Star Trek to accurately make that reference. Others would argue that it's possible that even though Eve doesn't know MOST pop culture references, at one point she could have watched a few Star Trek episodes and retained enough to know who the Ferengi are.
Because this reference isn't at all clear cut, and seems to be more a matter of personal opinion, it should not be listed as a YANNI.
Hope that helps a bit. If you have any questions about this, please comment and let me know.
Thanks!