fancruft

English

Etymology

From fan +‎ cruft.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfænˌkrʌft/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

Noun

fancruft (uncountable)

1. (Wikimedia jargon, derogatory) Trivial or excessively detailed information on a work of fiction added by fans to a general-interest wiki.
   • [2008, Phoebe Ayers, Charles Matthews, Ben Yates, How Wikipedia Works: And how You Can be a Part of it, No Starch Press, →ISBN, page 225:

     Fancruft (sometimes shortened to just cruft) is a derogatory term for these types of articles, which are sometimes just barely tolerated.]

   • 2012, Jason Mittell, “Wikis and Participatory Fandom”, in Aaron Delwiche, Jennifer Jacobs Henderson, editors, The Participatory Cultures Handbook, Routledge, →ISBN, page 39:

     This contrast shows how dedicated Star Wars fans use the niche Wookieepedia to create and value content with a vast amount of detail and precision, even if the same content is viewed as fancruft within the more general Wikipedia community.

   • 2014, Michael Restivo, Why Wiki Works: Peer Production and Making Knowledge the Wiki Way (dissertation), Stony Brook University, page 1:

     Editors are the folks who detect and remove original research and fancruft.

   • 2017, David Letzler, The Cruft of Fiction: Mega-Novels and the Science of Paying Attention, U of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 5:

     Although the term ["cruft"] is almost always intended negatively, it is also associated with a certain obsessive attraction, most obviously in the case of "fancruft," those excessively detailed wiki entries about extremely minor elements of some niche subculture.

2. (fandom slang, derogatory, less common) Low-quality material (especially literature) produced by fans of a performer, group, author etc.
   • 2019, Suzanne Scott, Fake Geek Girls: Fandom, Gender, and the Convergence Culture Industry, NYU Press, →ISBN, page 137:

     Here, Talking Dead forwards its own subtle policing strategy, celebrating the moment of canonical coupling in which Richonne is elevated from feminine “fancruft” to a legitimate topic of conversation, simultaneously reveling in and poking fun at Brown's deep emotional investment in coupling.