The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say about fanfiction:

Nine times out of ten, fans are not pleased with the way their Creators treat the characters they so brilliantly invented and then abandoned to weak plot devices. Hence, writers ranging from the very good to the mind-numbingly terrible write stories, termed "fanfiction", in which (with the help of a disclaimer saying "Don't Sue!) they can make the characters do whatever they darn well please.

A good example of this is the show "Xwhjgrwegjhrweehj, the Shdafdgfdhsjg", the most popular historical fantasy drama to ever be produced on Alpha Centauri. When the sorceress princess Xjjynitf passed over both the poor-yet-virtuous-and-magically-gifted-woodcutter AND the handsome warrior prince in favor of a used speeder salesman, ratings initially went through the roof. However, the writers soon discovered that this was only so that fanfiction writers system-wide wanted to construct alternate realities in which this had never happened, or creative and painful ways to kill off the salesman. Some writers even banded together to create whole alternate seasons. Shows on Earth that this has happened to would be "Sliders" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", but these are not carried by any of the major galactic networks in an effort to prevent riots. As a matter of fact, all of "Sliders" after season 2 has been banned in the Epsilon system, as the last time they were shown there, Earth was nearly brought up on charges for the death of the Professor and Wade, and Maggie was burned in effigy system-wide for over a year.

-entry by eris86, Earth correspondent and resident mixology expert

Whump. (WHUMP) To whump, whumping. adj. Fanfiction term used to describe pain, either emotional or physical, inflicted on a sympathetic character either for the purposes of furthering the storyline, making a sociocultural point, setting up the Hurt part of a Hurt/Comfort fic, or simply because the author likes to do it.

Woobie. (WOOB-ie) adj. Diminutive. Term used to describe a character that one feels affection/pity for, caught in a situation of mental or physical anguish. Example: "Just Jill is subjecting the wonderful Qui-Gon and the adorable-soon-to-be-luscious Obi-Wan to undue amounts of angst. Poor woobies, I bet she has some whumping in store for them, too."

Author's note: I have no idea where the heck this came from. One moment I was explaining terms to Just Jill (I highly recommend her work, by the way!) and the next moment, this was sitting in front of me. Ah, well. Read and review, guys.