MackyBeth

Welcome!

Hello, MackyBeth, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few links to pages you might find helpful:

• Getting Started
• Introduction to Wikipedia
• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• How to edit a page and How to develop articles
• How to create your first article
• Simplified Manual of Style

Please remember to sign your messages on talk pages by typing four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{help me}} before the question. Again, welcome! Victoria (talk) 22:19, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

Hi Victoria, thank you for these useful links. I started out at the Dutch Wikipedia, which does not have Manuals of Style for Novels and Biographies, with the result that there is much more unfriendly dispute between editors. Now that I have seen the manuals, I understand why out of a total of 1.7 million pages on the Dutch Wikipedia, less than 300 have Featured-status.MackyBeth (talk) 16:19, 13 December 2013 (UTC)

DYK for Captain Ahab (Moby-Dick)

Callanecc (talk • contribs • logs) 20:18, 27 March 2014 (UTC)

Melville (who else?)

You may find this article by John Updike about Melville of interest:
"An Appetite for Truth: On Melville's Shorter Fiction"; Yale Review, Volume 85, Issue 4, 1997.
Also, perhaps Stanley T. Williams is worth a red-link; he could be considered the midwife of the Melville revival (see the second paragraph in section 2.2 of Herman Melville. - Neonorange (talk) 21:07, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

• Thanks for this. Williams is indeed a very important person in Melville studies. He directed the first wave of Melville dissertations, and some of these have not been superseded since. For instance, Nathalia Wright is still the authority for Melville and the Bible. However, red links are especially ugly if they already appear in the lead.MackyBeth (talk) 15:01, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

August 2014

Hello, I'm BracketBot. I have automatically detected that your edit to Thomas Melvill (American patriot) may have broken the syntax by modifying 1 "[]"s. If you have, don't worry: just edit the page again to fix it. If I misunderstood what happened, or if you have any questions, you can leave a message on my operator's talk page.

List of unpaired brackets remaining on the page:

• * Parker, Hershel. (1996). [''[http://books.google.nl/books?id=OrTOQR4QyKIC&printsec=frontcover&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, BracketBot (talk) 17:26, 20 August 2014 (UTC)

Hello, I'm BracketBot. I have automatically detected that your edit to Merton M. Sealts, Jr. may have broken the syntax by modifying 1 "[]"s. If you have, don't worry: just edit the page again to fix it. If I misunderstood what happened, or if you have any questions, you can leave a message on my operator's talk page.

List of unpaired brackets remaining on the page:

• * [http://people.hofstra.edu/John_L_Bryant/Melville_Extracts/Volume%2079/extracts079_nov89_pg01.html "'

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, BracketBot (talk) 18:16, 22 August 2014 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for August 27

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Moby-Dick, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Pequod. Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 08:59, 27 August 2014 (UTC)

September 2014

Hello, I'm BracketBot. I have automatically detected that your edit to Beyond Sleep may have broken the syntax by modifying 1 "()"s. If you have, don't worry: just edit the page again to fix it. If I misunderstood what happened, or if you have any questions, you can leave a message on my operator's talk page.

List of unpaired brackets remaining on the page:

• discovered that his photocamera, which symbolizes the third stage, was no longer working.<ref>Raat (1989', 224</ref>

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, BracketBot (talk) 14:13, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for September 3

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that you've added some links pointing to disambiguation pages. Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

Beyond Sleep

added a link pointing to Narcissus

Herman Melville

added a link pointing to Exodus

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 09:36, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!

Hi,
You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:59, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for February 9

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Herman Melville, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Oliver Wendell Holmes. Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 13:50, 9 February 2016 (UTC)

Attribution vs citation

Actually, an {{attribution needed}} tag means you have to mention within the text who said these things—they can't merely be quoted. Curly Turkey 🍁 ¡gobble! 01:30, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

Ah, I see. Done! Reading the second sentence of the page linked in your message, to the attribution needed template, gives me the impression you should not have added those tags, though. MackyBeth

It would have been better if I had gone through all the sources, but I'm only copyediting today and wasn't interested in doing that particular work. What would have been irresponsible would have been to simply pass over it. Curly Turkey 🍁 ¡gobble! 02:36, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

And you weren't even finished yet, I noticed. Your major removal edited was a hopelessly random list which was added back when the current main editors weren't working on the page yet, so nobody is going to regret the loss of that. BTW I saw that you are a comics guy, and interested in Tintin. Ever read the series by Herge's friend Edgar P. Jacobs, called Blake and Mortimer? Classic stuff. Cheers MackyBeth

I know of it, but I've never read it. One of these days. Curly Turkey 🍁 ¡gobble! 10:12, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

Invisible Man

Seriously?! I haven't read the book, but I'd imagine it had a happier ending. Anyways, it's way out of place in the lead. Curly Turkey 🍁 ¡gobble! 00:31, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

This is going to sound stupid, but I cannot copy links with this Phone I am working with but see the External links at Benito Cereno. It's there. The IM article should be way better than it is, there are some decent online sources. Can't do everything at once though. MackyBeth

Touch screens are a bitch to work with. Curly Turkey 🍁 ¡gobble! 00:47, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

Continued thanks!

THanks once more for your continued hard work! One thing, though, is to remember the four tildes at the end of your TalkPage additions.ch (talk) 04:39, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

I still have to get used to this smartphone and thought it did not have tildes, but that sign is actually there, I just found out. There we go MackyBeth (talk) 09:03, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

In the Heart of the Sea (film)

In case you didn´t know, I thought you might find it interesting that Melville appears as a character in this film. On a related note, today I found this gem: [1]. I think I´ll see it, I like Barry Bostwick. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 21:13, 25 March 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for this! I always thought it a bit awkward that Moby-Dick, which does not have a story suited for a film, has been filmed several times while the first biopic of Melville's live has yet to be made, while his life is perfectly suited for a great movie.MackyBeth (talk) 13:20, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

In the Heart of the Sea got me interested in Moby Dick adaptions, so I recently watched Moby Dick (2011 miniseries) and Moby Dick (1998 miniseries). I thought they both had fine Ahabs. I can´t recommend the Barry Bostwick one though, so, so, bad. Pequod the submarine... It didn´t work. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:37, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

Elvis revert

1) I wasn't aware that the article had a different "format of referencing" from every other article (and I'm not sure it really matters), but instead of reverting (which should only be done when there's vandalism or as a last resort; see WP:ROWN), you could have fixed it yourself or left a message on my talk page to let me know (especially a question - which, the ES isn't really the place for that). (2) If you noticed my previous edit, where I removed "Pentecostal" from the infobox, I figured if the person who added it wasn't going to add it to the body then I would -- and I figured I would need to add a source saying that the AoG is Pentecostal -- and since I don't have the book that's sourced there, I don't know if it says that in it. But it certainly doesn't hurt to have more than one (it actually helps). There's a place in the lead where there are 4 cites, and yet a lead section really isn't supposed to have any cites, unless it's something that could be contested. So, instead of unnecessarily reverting one, that's what you could be removing (per MOS). I will wait for your reply before making another change. —Musdan77 (talk) 02:11, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for your clarification, Musdan. My understanding of having multiple citations for one sentence is that the text combines material from various sources, material not provided by one source alone. I may be mistaken there, but I just don't see the point of adding a source without adding information from that source. The sentence was sourced, and placing another citation next to the existing one makes it difficult to see where the information comes from, not something we want in a FA rated article. If you feel I reverted you without good reason, then the solution would be that you revert me back and adjust the citation format (!), and I'll let it stand to find out if no other editors see anything to disagree with. Good rockin'!MackyBeth (talk) 20:34, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

OK, thanks for your understanding. But, I'm assuming that you have the book Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley. If so, can you tell me if it mentions that the Assembly of God is Pentecostal? If it does, it wouldn't need another source. I tried doing a google book search, but it doesn't show excerpts. —Musdan77 (talk) 22:19, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

Unless the index to Guralnick's first volume is sloppy, he does not say, well, not anything really, about the religious type of The Assembly of God Church. The fullest discussion of that church is on page 67, and even there the focus is upon the "fire-and-brimstone" type of preaching and the presence of the Blackwood Brothers.MackyBeth (talk) 11:10, 10 April 2016 (UTC)

Thank you. Musdan77 (talk) 19:17, 10 April 2016 (UTC)

Ralph Ellison

"The lead serves as an introduction to the article and a summary of its most important contents."

Like i said, that posthumous work is one out of many, with no more or less notoriety than the other ones. No reason for that particular one be on the lead in detriment of the others. Coltsfan (talk) 20:06, 27 August 2016 (UTC)

You must be joking. He worked for decades at this novel.MackyBeth (talk) 22:07, 27 August 2016 (UTC)

ArbCom Elections 2016: Voting now open!

Hello, MackyBeth. Voting in the 2016 Arbitration Committee elections is open from Monday, 00:00, 21 November through Sunday, 23:59, 4 December to all unblocked users who have registered an account before Wednesday, 00:00, 28 October 2016 and have made at least 150 mainspace edits before Sunday, 00:00, 1 November 2016.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2016 election, please review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:08, 21 November 2016 (UTC)

Another Elvis revert(?)

I'm not sure why you would revert my reversion of someone removing a tag, by saying, "This is already under discussion at Talk", when it seems that the tag is what started the discussion. Per WP:RV, the subject of a discussion should remain during the discussion. —Musdan77 (talk) 19:18, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

I didn't know that and replaced the tag just now. Please join the discussion to agree how many citations for this extraordinary claim are needed and which ones can best be retained. MackyBeth (talk) 16:12, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

Survey Invite

I'm working on a study of political motivations and how they affect editing. I'd like to ask you to take a survey. The survey should take 5 minutes. Your survey responses will be kept private. Our project is documented at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikipedia_%2B_Politics.

Survey Link: http://uchicago.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_80J3UDCpLnKyWTH?Q_DL=2oczE7SODTUnF5j_80J3UDCpLnKyWTH_MLRP_4H0t5b4G7z5L5Cl&Q_CHL=gl

I am asking you to participate in this study because you are a frequent editor of pages on Wikipedia that are of political interest. We would like to learn about your experiences in dealing with editors of different political orientations.

Sincere thanks for your help! Porteclefs (talk) 18:13, 8 August 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for your message, but I am not at all interested in politics, and the pages I usually edit are not about politics. MackyBeth (talk) 07:46, 9 August 2017 (UTC)

ArbCom 2017 election voter message

Hello, MackyBeth. Voting in the 2017 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 10 December. All users who registered an account before Saturday, 28 October 2017, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Wednesday, 1 November 2017 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2017 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 3 December 2017 (UTC)

Herman Whatever

So much for trusting my memory! In my defense: there were two erroneous edits in the the article's infobox, separated by intervening edits. I assumed that only one edit was the cause of swapping the birth name and the changed name, used Twinkle "undo" and checked the preview. I still saw an error. Repeated. Still saw an error. So I then just made a revision without using Twinkle "undo". By then I guess I had forgotten actual change the family made. Thanks for the correction. Perhaps I should read Melville again—it has been fifty years since I last did so. Neonorange (talk) 09:47, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

I already suspected you misremembered the actual original name. In these times it takes some effort to reserve time for reading, but it is really worth it to make a point of reading Melville. Thoreau once wrote: Read the best books first, for you don't know if you will have the time to read them later. Due to a change of circumstances, I haven't had the time to read Melville criticism and scholarship, yet a week or so ago I started reading about Moby-Dick again, and the best criticism is really very enlightening and perceptive. It would be a pity if these insights were to remain covered in scholarly journals and books, instead of being used for Wikipedia articles. Oh, Time Cash Strength and Patience! MackyBeth (talk) 19:20, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

ArbCom 2018 election voter message

Hello, MackyBeth. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2018 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

ArbCom 2020 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2020 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 7 December 2020. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate in the 2020 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:33, 24 November 2020 (UTC)

ArbCom 2021 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2021 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 6 December 2021. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate in the 2021 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:37, 23 November 2021 (UTC)

ArbCom 2022 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 12 December 2022. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2022 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:10, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

advice on Herman Melville content needs?

Hello, I noticed that you contribute a lot of Melville-related pages! I am a Wikipedian-in-residence at the Brigham Young University library. We have a research collection on Melville, and I'd like to help improve Melville content on Wikipedia. Even though I am studying for a Master's in American literature, I am relatively ignorant about Melville and his works. It looks like many pages about him and his works are well-written, thanks to your (and others') efforts. Are there certain pages that need cleanup that you would suggest I start with? I could also look into creating new pages for some of his short stories, if there is enough coverage to pass GNG. Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 18:07, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

ArbCom 2024 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2024 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 2 December 2024. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2024 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:26, 19 November 2024 (UTC)