We're laying out our editorial style memo on this matter plainly, in the interest of transparency. We will not be using the periods when discussing Marvel's Agents of SHIELD from here on out, and we feel content, empowered even, in that decision. We invite other publications to join us. So far, alas, it looks as though we're mostly on our own. We reached out to several other outlets and asked them what they planned to do, would it be periods or no periods, and their answers were dispiriting.

First we had to reach out to the copy desk at our sister publication The Atlantic and consulted the style guide. SHIELD is an acronym that stands for the mouthful Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate. Atlantic style in print is to run real-life acronyms like NASA and NATO in small caps (regular caps will do in a digital pinch). Notice, no periods. (Initialism — that is where you pronounce each letter like TSA or FBI — also do not get periods.) So if SHIELD existed in the real world, our copy desk advises us, we'd be dropping the periods no matter how they punctuated their own logo. There is often some deference given to book or movie titles, but Marvel has gone too far. We must draw the line somewhere.

Todd VanDerWerff, television editor of The A.V. Club (fine, we'll use their periods here; we're not monsters), told us that "unfortunately" they will be using periods. The rationale? "[W]e use the asterisks in M*A*S*H." Which we can understand. But how often is anyone writing about M*A*S*H these days? That's not much of an inconvenience. Rich Juzwiak at Gawker expressed similar reasoning: "Notorious B.I.G., not Notorious BIG." Meanwhile Daniel D'Addario, a culture writer at Salon, told us that he'll be using the periods because rules are rules. "It's how the show's title is styled, annoying though it may be," he told us. He added, "I'm enough of a rule-follower that I feel weird about leaving the Lee Daniels' off The Butler." A slave to authority, that one.

We reached out to writers at Vulture and The New Yorker, both of whom expressed ignorance as to the official policy and then passed the buck to their copy editors, saying it was ultimately their decision. It may ultimately be, but can't these writers take an initial stand? Do they not value their time, their efficiency, their sovereignty? (Dismayingly, Vulture's copy editors have expressed pro-period tendencies in the past.) Will no one else join us in our noble crusade?

The most measured and thorough response to our query came to us from Entertainment Weekly's Darren Franich, a dedicated chronicler of all things geek-related. Explaining his company's policy, he told us, "Currently, we use periods, although there's an only-for-online twist: In headlines, we go no-period for SEO purposes." Aha! A chink in the armor, perhaps. Might EW eventually break down and apply the headline policy to all mentions?