Wikipedia:Fan analysis

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This is an essay; it contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. It is not a policy or guideline, and editors are not obliged to follow it.

There is an abundance of fancruft on Wikipedia. Fancruft generally falls into two categories:

  • Copyright violations: Stuff that's directly pulled from copyrighted material and is unoriginal to the point that it is a derivative work that cannot be released under the GFDL. [1]
  • Fan analysis: Stuff that's pulled from copyrighted material, but created enough original fan analysis to the point that it is a derivative work which is unencyclopedic, but legal.

An example of this is the Back to the Future timeline. Is it an original work? If you say no, it is a copyright violations. If you say yes, then it is in violation of WP:SYNTH and should therefore be deleted.