[WikiEN-l] Cruft

[Anthony DiPierro]

On 5/3/06, Philip Welch <wikipedia at philwelch.net> wrote:
> The explication I read at [[Cruft]] and at the Jargon File's entry
> for "cruft" fit well within what I understood the meaning of "cruft"
> to be on Wikipedia.
>
> >> In AfD contexts, it's extraneous
> >> content not suitable for inclusion in the encyclopedia.
> >
> > Well, the actual usage is as a pejorative-type suffix; what you are
> > smuggling there into 'extraneous'.
>
> That's not what I'm smuggling there, that's what the word means, and
> that's what I and many others have always understood it to mean. The
> fact that large numbers of people don't know that only reiterates my
> point that we should educate Wikipedians about the jargon.
>
> "Listcruft" is cruft in the form of a list. "Fancruft" is cruft of
> interest only to fans of the topic in question.
>

I still don't understand the point of the term.  If all "cruft" means
is something not suitable for inclusion in the encyclopedia, isn't it
redundant?

Does "delete, bandcruft" really mean the same as "delete, deletable
article about a band"?  Why not just say "delete"?

Anthony