User blog comment:The S/Fan Stuff - Stay or Go?/@comment-93957-20160724222719/@comment-995426-20160725180336

You talk about how other wikis do not document unlicensed content, and you ask, reasonably, why Turtlepedia should. And ultimately, I think it comes down to the less formal nature of the TMNT comics scene, owing to its roots as an independent comic. In many ways, past and present, a lot of the TMNT comics creators remain very approachable with their audience and interact casually with them on social networking; and not just on Twitter, but also on Blogger and even on deviantART.

Maybe larger companies like Viacom, Disney and Time Warner maintain a more carefully lawyer-manicured public interaction to the point where any communication with them feels sterile and their social media presence feels fake at best. The same cannot necessarily be said of Mirage or IDW. They feel more human, and they invite a more human discussion environment.

And with murky topics ranging from the Guest Era, to the unlicensed works involving big name talent, to prominent fan works that have larger audiences than many of the licensed works, none of these things exist completely in a vacuum from each other, even if lawyers may advise a certain amount of professional distance to discourage potential lawsuits.

So why do we have articles on this various stuff? It's not just because they exist, but because they're actually very influential and important. Even before I started reading MNT Gaiden, I knew other TMNT fans who were reading it, and insisting that it was leaving a noticeable influence on later licensed works, even if creators are legally advised not to acknowledge it. So even if we cannot confirm it, we still cannot deny that the TMNT comics audience has been strongly affected by its presence. And for every wiki visitor who complains about unlicensed works, there will also be visitors who wonder why the comic everyone talks about doesn't get mentioned. Because, again, these things do not exist in a vacuum, and if we deny that, then we're not being honest with the audience.

I can think of another wiki that does address unlicensed works. The Minecraft Wiki. This is because there are unlicensed mods of the game that have developed huge followings in their own right, such as The Aether. The wiki readily documents and acknowledges these works too prominent to ignore, though separates them into the "Mods/" namespace to make it clear they are not licensed works. I believe this is a good approach to emulate, perhaps with an "Unofficial/" namespace or something similar.