User talk:Merry medievalist

Wikipedia and copyright
Hello Merry medievalist, and welcome to Wikipedia. Your additions to Ernest Gordon have been removed in whole or in part, as they appear to have added copyrighted content without evidence that the source material is in the public domain or has been released by its owner or legal agent under a suitably-free and compatible copyright license. (To request such a release, see Requesting copyright permission.) While we appreciate your contributions to Wikipedia, there are certain things you must keep in mind about using information from sources to avoid copyright and plagiarism issues.


 * You can only copy/translate a small amount of a source, and you must mark what you take as a direct quotation with double quotation marks (") and cite the source using an inline citation. You can read about this at Non-free content in the sections on "text". See also Help:Referencing for beginners, for how to cite sources here.
 * Aside from limited quotation, you must put all information in your own words and structure, in proper paraphrase. Following the source's words too closely can create copyright problems, so it is not permitted here; see Close paraphrasing. (There is a college-level introduction to paraphrase, with examples, hosted by the Online Writing Lab of Purdue.) Even when using your own words, you are still, however, asked to cite your sources to verify the information and to demonstrate that the content is not original research.
 * Our primary policy on using copyrighted content is Copyrights. You may also want to review Copy-paste.
 * If you own the copyright to the source you want to copy or are a legally designated agent, you may be able to license that text so that we can publish it here. Understand, though, that unlike many other sites, where a person can license their content for use there and retain non-free ownership, that is not possible at Wikipedia. Rather, the release of content must be irrevocable, to the world, into the public domain (PD) or under a suitably-free and compatible copyright license. Such a release must be done in a verifiable manner, so that the authority of the person purporting to release the copyright is evidenced. See Donating copyrighted materials.
 * In very rare cases (that is, for sources that are PD or compatibly licensed) it may be possible to include greater portions of a source text. However, please seek help at Media copyright questions, the help desk or the Teahouse before adding such content to the article. 99.9% of sources may not be added in this way, so it is necessary to seek confirmation first. If you do confirm that a source is public domain or compatibly licensed, you will still need to provide full attribution; see Plagiarism for the steps you need to follow.
 * Also note that Wikipedia articles may not be copied or translated without attribution. If you want to copy or translate from another Wikipedia project or article, you must follow the copyright attribution steps in Translation. See also Copying within Wikipedia.

It's very important that contributors understand and follow these practices, as policy requires that people who persistently do not must be blocked from editing. If you have any questions about this, you are welcome to leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you. — Diannaa 🍁 (talk) 18:57, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

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November 2019
Hello. I wanted to let you know that your recent edit(s) to Zorro, The Gay Blade have been removed because you cited the information you added to IMDb. As discussed at WP:RS/IMDb, IMDb is considered a questionable source, and generally should not be used as a sole reference. You are welcome to re-add the information using a different reliable source, or with an additional source confirming the information from IMDb. If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you. DonIago (talk) 14:45, 19 November 2019 (UTC)

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Copyright problem on Prestige (film)
Plot descriptions cannot be copied from other sources, including official sources and IMDb, unless these can be verified to be public domain or licensed compatibly with Wikipedia. They must be written in original language to comply with Wikipedia's copyright policy. — Diannaa 🍁 (talk) 14:01, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

December 2019
Welcome to Wikipedia. We appreciate your contributions, but in one of your recent edits to The Great Race, it appears that you have added original research, which is against Wikipedia's policies. Original research refers to material—such as facts, allegations, ideas, and personal experiences—for which no reliable, published sources exist; it also encompasses combining published sources in a way to imply something that none of them explicitly say. Please be prepared to cite a reliable source for all of your contributions. You can have a look at the tutorial on citing sources. Thank you. Binksternet (talk) 17:25, 5 December 2019 (UTC)

Plot Summaries for Films
Hi, Merry Medievalist. I notice you have recently put lots of hard work into good faith edits expanding a number of short or incomplete "Plot summary" sections in film articles.

Just want to direct you to Manual of Style/Film, which adds some guidance on writing these summaries, including "Plot summaries for feature films should be between 400 and 700 words" and "The plot summary is an overview of the film's main events, so avoid minutiae like dialogue, scene-by-scene breakdowns, individual jokes, and technical detail". Your recent summaries – such as your 2,400-word "summary" for the previously 200-word (definitely was a bit short) The Enchanted Cottage (1945 film), your 2,200-word "summary" for the previously 170-word (definitely had some room to expand) Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film), or your 3,000-word summary for the previously 600-word (a proper size) Black Narcissus – must have taken immense time and effort on your part. While this is a true dedication to the articles, it far surpasses the limits set out in Manual of Style (MOS), using 20 films' worth of words on just three films.

I reverted some of these WP:PLOTBLOAT items, and marked some others with "Template:Long plot". I hope you might take some time to readjust your information within the guidance of the Manual of Style/Film, and point out that your research is not lost, as you can use the "View History" option to see your previous expansions, providing you material to pull from if you do go back to do a a bit of expansion within the MOS guidelines. One tip to give you more words to use in the "Plot" section, is that the names of the actors playing the roles go into the "Cast" section; this will give you an additional 20 to 30 words of substance to add to the plot summary.

Your recent work on The Conquerors (1932 film) is a terrific example of the overall goal for any editor, taking a 400-word summary and adding clarity, detail and corrections that improved the article's summary considerably, while staying inside the 700-word normal limit.

I only wish I, or some other editor, had noticed earlier and given you this information, before you put what must have been a tremendous amount of time into all these over-expanded "summaries". Thanks again for your enthusiasm and dedication to the Wikipedia project. Jmg38 (talk) 06:27, 8 December 2019 (UTC)


 * Please note that your edit to the note on Looper was technically incorrect. As noted above, WP:FILMPLOT stipulates a maximum word count of 700 words, not 600. Thank you for your understanding. DonIago (talk) 14:13, 30 March 2020 (UTC)
 * I wanted to chime in on this too.
 * I am watching Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film), and I started reading its plot. I saw the tag that the plot is too detailed.  I read with an eye to see if I agreed.  I was so impressed with your writing, I didn't have the heart to delete any of it.
 * For better or for worse, we have agreed upon rules, and some--like the word count limit on plot--may seem arbitrary. When new editors make good faith edits (like yours) and bump up against the rules, the experience with volunteers who enforce those rules can at times be an unpleasant experience.  Not everyone is as thoughtful in their responses as . I have seen talented people who have exceptional knowledge of a content area leave Wikipedia in disgust, because they were not given the respect and deference they felt they deserved--a respect they may routinely get in their field of expertise in real life.
 * Your writing is so good, I very much hope you will stick around. We need more editors with your writing prowess.  (I am assuming it's your writing and not plagiarism.)
 * If you run up against editors who are telling you that you are breaking rules and you feel you have been unfairly or rudely treated, please feel free to leave a message on my talk page, and I will try to help you work through it. Other editors can help too at the Teahouse and other places, if I am unavailable.
 * I have an advice section for new editors at the top of my user page that may be of help if you encounter conflict here. Happy editing.  I hope you stay. --David Tornheim (talk) 08:55, 8 May 2020 (UTC)
 * P.S. I do see that you have almost 2,000 edits and started in 2015, but have not been active until about January 2019. So you are not exactly a "new editor", but would be classified as an Apprentice Editor.  I probably wouldn't have spent so much time writing the above response if I had noticed your edit history is as long as it is.  Anyway, the offer above to help still stands.  --David Tornheim (talk) 09:09, 8 May 2020 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for December 12
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Copying within Wikipedia requires attribution
Thank you for your contributions to Wikipedia. It appears that you copied or moved text from Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign into Doolittle Raid. While you are welcome to re-use Wikipedia's content, here or elsewhere, Wikipedia's licensing does require that you provide attribution to the original contributor(s). When copying within Wikipedia, this is supplied at minimum in an edit summary at the page into which you've copied content, disclosing the copying and linking to the copied page, e.g.,. It is good practice, especially if copying is extensive, to also place a properly formatted copied template on the talk pages of the source and destination. The attribution has been provided for this situation, but if you have copied material between pages before, even if it was a long time ago, please provide attribution for that duplication. You can read more about the procedure and the reasons at Copying within Wikipedia. Thank you. If you are the sole author of the prose that was copied, attribution is not required. — Diannaa (talk) 17:28, 16 February 2020 (UTC)

The Miracle Worker
I saw your attempt to deal with a problem and it didn't quite work out. Being behind a WP:PAYWALL is not an issue. Adding a comment as a reference was the wrong way to go. There are some other templates to deal with problematic references (e.g. ) or text (e.g. ). This might help: Happy editing. BiologicalMe (talk) 23:18, 29 February 2020 (UTC)

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von Sternberg ariticle
I noticed your corrections on the article. I am going to be re-editing the films of King Vidor soon, with some suitable sources, Brownlow, Baxter et al. Would you mind putting the Vidor article on your watchlist? would appreciate your observations/edits as needed. Lord Such&#38;Such (talk) 19:58, 24 May 2020 (UTC)

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The Sons of Katie Elder
I was just reading through the work you did on that article. I loved it. Thank you. — Ched (talk) 02:08, 26 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Please note that Audience scores such as those from IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes are not allowed, per WP:USERGENERATED. Do not add them to Wikipedia articles as you did in the article The Sons of Katie Elder. -- 20:50, 27 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Also Memoirs_of_a_Geisha_(film). -- 109.77.210.114 (talk) 20:55, 27 August 2021 (UTC)

Please use the Wayback Machine instead of removing dead links
You removed http://www.classicfilmguide.com/indexb1d7.html and http://scifilm.org/musing2175.html at Miracle in the Rain. But both of these articles persist at the Internet Archive, and Wikipedia recommends that you use those archived pages rather than deleting the dead links. You can read these two dead pages as they appeared when they were still live; at https://web.archive.org/web/20150320030704/http://www.classicfilmguide.com/indexb1d7.html and https://web.archive.org/web/20160303234309/http://scifilm.org/musing2175.html, respectively.

To cite a page from the Wayback Machine, see Help:Using the Wayback Machine.

To find the page in the Internet Archive, go to https://archive.org/ and enter the complete URL in the WayBackMachine box. After an excessive number of seconds passes, if the Archive holds the page, it will put up a sort of calendar. Pick a date and it will put up another calendar. Pick a highlighted date and it will put up a time. Click on the time, and you will see your dead page. Note that very late instances might instead give you a dead page error -- the page in question is already declaring itself dead, and was archived in that sad condition. Pick and earlier page instead.

I'm not sure I have the sequence perfect but give it a whirl, figure it out, and please don't remove dead links without checking this. Larry Koenigsberg (talk) 04:54, 8 September 2021 (UTC)
 * I made the changes outlined above. Larry Koenigsberg (talk) 04:54, 8 September 2021 (UTC)

Nomination of List of The Librarian characters for deletion
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Zelda Fitzgerald under FA review
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A barnstar for you!

 * Thank you! Merry medievalist (talk) 01:30, 24 June 2022 (UTC)

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Hello, I'm Tacyarg. I noticed that you added or changed content in an article, Alun Armstrong, but you didn't provide a reliable source. It's been removed and archived in the page history for now, but if you'd like to include a citation and re-add it, please do so. You can have a look at referencing for beginners. If you think I made a mistake, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you. Tacyarg (talk) 12:46, 20 July 2022 (UTC)

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October 2022
When you add a new fact to Wikipedia, please also add a WP:Reliable source that verifies the fact. See WP:V for more information about this key policy. If you need guidance on referencing, please see the referencing for beginners tutorial. All the best, -- Ssilvers (talk) 15:55, 24 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi. What fact, please. I have been citing madly for years (just received access to the library), so I would really like to know where I slipped up. Merry medievalist (talk) 20:37, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

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Confessions of a Nazi Spy
Hi Merry medievalist. Thanks for reducing the plot summary of Confessions of a Nazi Spy. I've put the tag back on it because I think it is still too long. Please don't take that personally. It is definitely better than it was before you edited it. DanielRigal (talk) 17:40, 27 January 2023 (UTC)


 * You are so right, I wax going to work on it more off line, and life got in the way. I'll fix it. Thanks for letting me know Merry medievalist (talk) 16:21, 16 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Actually, it is under the limit. 696 words, so I won't work on it anymore. But I still thank you in principle. Merry medievalist (talk) 16:25, 16 February 2023 (UTC)

March 2023
Hello, I'm MichaelMaggs. I noticed that you added or changed content in an article, Busman's Honeymoon, but you didn't provide a reliable source. It's been removed and archived in the page history for now, but if you'd like to include a citation and re-add it, please do so. You can have a look at referencing for beginners. If you think I made a mistake, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you. MichaelMaggs (talk) 21:59, 6 March 2023 (UTC)

Copy of my response to Michael Maggs
Hi Michael,

You recently reverted an addition I made to Busman's Honeymoon because it “lacked a reliable source”. The reliable source was the Wikipedia article about the series. I have copied the entry below so you can follow the link.

In 7 years editing Wikipedia, this is the first time I have seen anyone suggest that it was necessary to add a formal citation of a WP page in addition to the internal links to Wikipedia articles. If that is true, a vast number of paragraphs need to be revised, including the one to which I appended this information, which relies on the link to Edward Petherbridge's WP article.

“(Petherbridge starred as Lord Peter in A Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery, a 1987 televised adaptation of all the Harriet Vane novels except Busman's Honeymoon. The BBC could not obtain the rights. )” Merry medievalist (talk) 02:34, 17 March 2023 (UTC)

I am also curious to know why you reverted the text instead of employing a “citation needed” note. I would never do that unless the text concerned was problematic in some other way. Merry medievalist (talk) 07:42, 17 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Merry medievalist You're right, and I've reverted myself. I think I saw the unsourced statement "The BBC could not obtain the rights" without noticing that A Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery was in blue and was a thus a link to a separate page where the information could be found. Apologies. MichaelMaggs (talk) 09:37, 17 March 2023 (UTC)[reply] Thank you! Merry medievalist (talk) 19:43, 17 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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