[WikiEN-l] fancruft

[Oldak Quill]

On 19/07/06, Michael Hopcroft <michael at mphpress.com> wrote:
> You know, I haven't really seen a good working definition of the term
> "fancruft", yet I seem to have run afoul of the concept more often than
> I have failed to. Mind you, the areas of my expertise (animation and
> RPGs) are especially vulnerable to such claims, but I seem to be running
> into it far more often than most other editors.
>
> I would say that I have an objection to some of the ways the policy has
> been applied, particularly to my own articles, but since I do not know
> what the policy actually entails (all things considered) it is difficult
> for me to form a rational response or objection to the times when I feel
> it is applied unfairly or unwisely.
>
> Could someone give me a non-judgmental (because it usually seems to be
> applied to content that those who cite find objectionable for other
> reasons, as in the case of the possibly offensive Archbishop Tutu joke
> that Mr. wales cites) explanation of just what the term 'fancruft" means
> and entails as a matter of Wikipedia policy?  (The apparently
> contemptuous nature of the term 'fancruft" itself also sticks in my craw
> as inherently judgmental, but that is neither here nor there.)
>
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Fancruft is the overdocumentation of certain fields of entertainment.
Jimbo's extract is a good example of bad fancruft - inserting niche
information into an article which won't benefit the reader.

Sadly, the word "fancruft" is too often levelled at anything the
accuser doesn't like him/herself. In this case it is a form of
elitism; the accuser claims that the articles a particular user is
trying to write are somehow not worthy enough simply due to their
subject matter. All you need to do is cite "Wikipedia is not paper".

-- 
Oldak Quill (oldakquill at gmail.com)