Talk:Melissa McBride

Parents' names

I removed information about McBride's parents per WP:BLPSOURCES with this edit because the website cited, "Taddlr.com", does not meet the conditions laid out in WP:RS. The reliability of "Taddlr.com" was disccussed at WP:RSN#Taddlr.com and the consensus was that it is not reliable and the the information can be removed. Such information, of course, can be re-added at a later date if properly supported by a reliable sources. - Marchjuly (talk) 00:21, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

SOS: poor grammar and repeated info

This article's syntax, morphology and semantics problems would shame a grade schooler. Also, certain of the information is repeated two or three times. I have tried to correct these issues, but my tweaks have been reverted. This page needs a professional editor. - — Preceding unsigned comment added by PhiladelphiaInjustice (talk • contribs) 22:17, 22 March 2015 (UTC+9)

We are pretty much all volunteers on Wikipedia. The fact that somebody is a professional editor does not make their opinion any more or less important than any other editor. If you feel changes should be made, then you can discuss them here first or just be bold and make the change yourself. If nobody reverts you then your change was probably a good one. If somebody reverts you, then it might be a good idea try and discuss things on the article's talk page (it's not required, but it's generally considered a good thing) and see if a compromise can be reached. WP:IMPERFECT says that "Perfection is not required", but that ideally improvements to articles are made over time through collaborative editing.

FWIW, all the changes you made seem fine to me except (1) your removal of McBride's IMDb page as an external link here and here, and (2) your removal of the image File:Melissa McBride 2014 San Diego Comic Con International.jpg here. Regarding (1), while it is true that IMDb is not acceptable as a reliable source for inline citations per WP:BLPSPS and WP:UGC, the page was not being used as a reliable source. Rather, it was being used as an external link. Reliable sources and external links are not the same thing, and WP:ELMAYBE and WP:TVEXLINKS do allow pages such as IMDb to be used as external links. Just for reference, Julianne Moore, Cillian Murphy, Brad Pitt, Aaron Sorkin and Emma Watson are all featured articles and they all have their respective IMDb pages given as external links. If such a usage was so blatantly unacceptable, the links would have been removed a long time ago. Regarding (2), the image you removed was unrelated to the text you removed so I'm not sure why you removed it. Perhaps it was just done by accident, but the image seems OK to me per WP:MOSIM and MOS:IMAGES. Removing images without explaining why in the edit sum is most likely going to lead to a reversion unless there is an obvious policy-based reason for doing so. You gave no such reason, so not sure why you feel it needs to be removed. - Marchjuly (talk) 05:30, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

Hello, I have tried to discuss my edits on this page, but user Alrofficial has reverted them three times within 24 hours without discussion, which is supposed to result in a user being blocked from editing. I had signed my original "SOS..." post, but it must have been unintentionally deleted by a subsequent edit. I had originally removed the IMDB link because that website is notoriously inaccurate and manipulated by fraudulent fan voting. I had understood that there is a difference between listing an external link versus a source, but extrapolated that Wiki's rejection of a website as the former equated to its likewise dismissal as the latter. A quick search reveals that Wiki inexplicably approves of such a questionable external link under the referenced circumstances, so I stand corrected. Further, I did not deliberately remove any images; I apologize if I did. As the main article appears now, the syntax, semantics and morphology would shame any grade school grammar student, as I have previously noted. Would you be so kind as to correct the grammar yourself or simply revert the page to my last edits (with your objections excepted)?--PhiladelphiaInjustice (talk) 12:15, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

I don't know what happened with your signature. There's no diff of it being removed by another edit. Perhaps it was just a glitch. Anyway, it occasionally happens, even to the best of us. Usually Signbot or another bot comes by and adds the signature. I just beat it to it the punch this time. As for the external links, I think your intentions were good, but Wikipedia does allow the use of IMDb pages as external links under certain conditions. It's confusing perhaps when it's not acceptable to use IMDb as a reliable source, but this has been been discussed at WP:ELN numerous times since the early days of Wikipedia and the consensus always seems to be it is generally OK as an external link. I think that involved at least one of the reverts made by Alrofficial you're referring to. The removal of the image seems to be, as I guessed, just a mistake. Stuff like that can sometimes happen when chucks of text are removed so sorry if it sounded like I was accusing you of deliberately doing it. The other stuff is a little trickier since it involves a disagreement over content. There's nothing wrong with correcting obvious grammar mistakes, etc. and I can't see why something like that would be controversial. Sometimes, however, major rewriting of an article can rub people the wrong way (See WP:PRESERVE), especially if sourced material and references are removed without a clear-cut policy-based reason. That's why it's often a good idea to ask for feedback before making a major change just to see if others are in agreement. Not required, but it can make collaborating a tad easier and reduce the chance of edit warring. Anyway, I'll take another look and see if I can find any errors. I'll also ask for help at WT:ACTOR because the editors in that WikiProject have experience with these types of articles and might have more suggestions on how to improve it. - Marchjuly (talk) 13:31, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

I was trying to bring up the McBride article to the quality of the articles of the other lead actors of "The Walking Dead", such as Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus and Chandler Riggs, all of whose pages are locked. The McBride article is currently a mess by any standards. I have already explained my reasoning in my prior posts.--PhiladelphiaInjustice (talk) 13:06, 26 March 2015 (UTC)

I just wanted to mention that I agree with the changes you made to the lead section. For a very short article, such as this one, it doesn't need to be longer than one paragraph. The previous version was way too long. --GoneIn60 (talk) 18:44, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Life and career

It's seems contrary what is written in MOS:HEAD to have a section titled "Life and career" and then a sub-section for that section titled "Early life and career". Personally, I do not see the need for such a division and suggest we simply create two separate sections: "Early life" and "Career". Right now, there might not be enough to sustain an independent "Early life" section so it probably would need to be expanded by adding more information. Anybody have any suggestions on how to best accomplish this? Thanks in advance. - Marchjuly (talk) 08:28, 2 April 2015 (UTC)

I agree, so I might make a few fixes. Also, would you be so kind as to get this page locked? The vandalism is getting out of hand.--PhiladelphiaInjustice (talk) 15:23, 2 April 2015 (UTC)

The page was semi-protected earlier for a period of one week. As for the article's layout, most featured articles on actors divide the section into three sections: Early life, Career, and Personal life. Personal life is typically the last section before listing awards and nominations. --GoneIn60 (talk) 15:54, 2 April 2015 (UTC)

I combined "early life" and "Personal life" into one section before I read your post. That should be acceptable, given that so little info is available on the subject from a summary web search.--PhiladelphiaInjustice (talk) 16:33, 2 April 2015 (UTC)

Hi PhiladelpiaInjustice. One alternative to combining sections might be to divide the article up into three sections per GoneIn60. As they said, that's a pretty standard format and fairly easy to build upon. Then, {{Expand section}} templates can be added where needed. Ideally, it would be best to add information wherever possible, but adding the templates at least helps make others aware that there's still some work which needs to be done. For reference, adding an "expand section" template will add the article to category pages of articles in similar need of expansion, like Category:All articles to be_expanded. Some editors work off such category pages and help improve articles that way. These editors might be able to access materials that aren't online or know where to find stuff that is. There's no guarantees and it usually doesn't lead to immediate results, but you never know. Anyway, just a suggestion.- Marchjuly (talk) 21:37, 2 April 2015 (UTC)

Hi March, feel free to make your proposed edits. They seem reasonable to me. I am surprised by the lack of bio info available about most of TWD's lead characters, including McBride's. I can't find more pertinent info to put into her referenced sections, at least from a summary web search.--PhiladelphiaInjustice (talk) 14:47, 4 April 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia is a work in progress PhiladelphiaInjustice so even if bio information cannot be currently be found, it may be found some time in the future. We can only "report" on what reliable sources tell us. - Marchjuly (talk) 00:34, 5 April 2015 (UTC)

I have reverted my inappropriate rearrangement, as per the Wiki protocol that you have mentioned. Feel free to make further changes.--PhiladelphiaInjustice (talk) 13:18, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

I don't think your arrangement was inappropriate. I actually saw it being used in another article recently. I was just suggesting a possible alternative to make future expansion easier. As for your question edit sum "At what age does early life end and personal life begin?", I don't know if there's a Wikipedia-defined age. It seems to be that "early life" tends to be before the pre-fame stuff before the discussion shifts to career (i.e., background, childhood, family, college) and then "personal life" involves anything from career onwards (i.e., marriage, kids, hobbies, charitable activities, etc.) They both seems to be catch-alls for anything general which is significant enough for mention, but not significant enough for more than a sentence or two. That would be an intersting question to ask at either WP:ACTOR and WP:BIOG- Marchjuly (talk) 21:42, 6 April 2015 (UTC)