Misused: Expy

As a number of people I've seen said it several times over, Expy is supposed to be "intended, official copy/sendoff of an existing character". And yet, some people just notes similarities of 2 unrelated persons, regardless of intentions, and call them Expies, and it's apparently an inaccurate use.

Thing is, I personally deem the latter as Expy (i.e many similarities between two persons, without one being intended to be the other), and you can see Fountain of Expies follow that pattern as well. While the former definition as stated (I think) fits better in Captain Ersatz.

Or maybe, those fan-noticed similarities should get their own Audience Reactions page.

Thoughts?

Dan, read the page. The definition is right there in the first sentence: "...an expy is a character from one series who is unambiguously and deliberately based on a character in another, older series. A few minor traits — such as age and name — may change, but there's no doubt that they are almost one and the same."

That's it. That's the definition.

There's a cleanup thread for it here

Declining to open the thread.