"Mermaiding" wikipedia page

[Shourn]

Hey, I'm new to this whole thing. I'm fascinated by mermaids and all sorts of mythical creatures, and I stumbled upon your community. Gotta admit that you're tempting me to overcome my aquaphobia, since I do some costuming anyway and this would be a great way to force myself.

Anyway, I've spent the last few days cleaning up the Wikipedia page about what y'all do. It's under threat of deletion for lack of "notability"--that is, worthiness of being in Wikipedia. Since I just heard about mermaiding, I haven't been able to write much but have been able to clean up the page and dig up some more sources. If any of you writer/researcher-type folks could write in a better representation than I could come up with at this point... I don't know. I just think y'all are really creative and deserve to have a Wikipedia article about what you do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mermaiding

[Echidna]

I've read that article before.
It's certainly nice that it exists, but what strikes me as wrong is the notion that mermaiding=water ballet.

It's not.
A mermaid might do water ballet, but mermaiding itself isn't dance in water, it's swimming in a tail.
Synchronized swimming is also labelled water ballet, but mermaiding is not the same as synchro swimming, is it. :p

I developed a certain kind of mermaid water dance, Nixentanz.
Back when I first found that article, I briefly considered explaining the differences between all those types of water sports, but as far as I know, I'm the only mer doing real synchro swimming adapted for tails, so having an article about it would probably be considered not worthwhile.

[AniaR]

Yes I've seen that before. I know Thom was tickled pink it had one of his photos. I thought the other photo though was one of Hannah used for a book cover.

Also, mermaid performing began long before Weeki, with Annette Kellerman she WAS in a mermaid tail, over 100 years ago. You can read all about her here: http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/blog/the-first-professional-mermaid it be great to have Annette in there earlier. Though you'd have to cite some historical website for it as opposed to my blog ;) along with her biography. She was also the first mermaid movie. She did loads of mermaid stuff including swimming in tanks.

[Spindrift]

Nice to see that we are Wikipedia-official though, haha.

[deepblue]

lol @ that 'water ballerinas' comment.

I wonder if the person who wrote that has any experience in the mermaiding world, because that doesn't seem like it.

I can see a how a lot of improvement can be made on the wiki page... maybe someone here can take care of that. ;) (Not me. I'm only on a sewing break atm.)

[AniaR]

Water ballet is what Annette Kellerman and Weeki mermaids have traditionally called it....it may not be what we call it but the point isn't wrong

[deepblue]

I'd like to see it put in context, not as if it's still a common term. But I was also disappointed in such a small mention of Annette Kellerman.

Then again, I was surprised to see there is a page on mermaiding at all. Thank you to the creator of it. :)

ETA- considering the growing popularity of mermaiding, I'm surprised to know it's threatened with deletion. What's there is a great start!

[AniaR]

lol it looks like Mermaid Melissa found this, it now has so much melissa content! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mermaiding

edit: someone removed it, but it was like 5 sentences about melissa, more than anything else mentioned in the article!

[AniaR]

I think I should submit a whole paragraph about my book! lol

7 of the 18 things cited are mermaid melissas website lol. Why doesnt she just make a mermaid melissa wikipedia page

[Ashe]

Memaid Melissa is legally named 'Mermaid'? Never heard of that one.

[Echidna]

...
External Links:
One press link, one Oprah Link, Mernetwork, aaaaaaannddd

BOOK HERE PRO MER M ONLY ONE IN THE LEGAL WORLD HOOO.

Seriously?
Lol.

[Princess Pearl]

I really doubt her claim of being the only person in the whole wide world who is legally named "Mermaid." People name their children very stupid things. If people can get away with calling their children things like "Number 16 Bus Shelter" and "Sex Fruit," I'm sure someone somewhere has named their baby "Mermaid."

And yes, those are real baby names.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/talula-does-the-hula-from-hawaii-9-gets-court-ordered-name-change-1.745238


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[Mermaid Wesley]

She had it changed so that she can have mermaid Melissa as her fb name i think. Weird to me idk.


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[Mermaid Mystery]

what's funny to me is her page on Facebook has no pictures of her whatsoever. it's all animals and "cool Internet Pinterest pictures" from 2009. I tried to go through it to see pics of her tails and I couldn't find anything.


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[AniaR]

so yeah it was edited as soon as I posted it. I shoulda screen capped it so you could of seen it -_-

BUT we had a big ol discussion of it on my Raina Mer account and the nice thing is we all brainstormed more content and citations, and a brave mer had taken it on to update it and flesh it out more :)

[Elle]

I'm tempted to edit this wiki page

[Princess Pearl]

Nothing's gone forever on wikipedia- there's always change logs, and you can even select different versions and compare them.

And looking at said change logs, you can also see the back end of what's been done.

For example, you can see that on March 24 there 15 edits, all made from the same IP address. Comparing the last version before that (dated February 23) to the final MArch 24 edit there's some GLARING changes. This includes changing the link to the Wreck Bar to Mermaid Melissa's webpage, as well as just throwing in a link to her website after a section about Annette Kellerman.

Some links to articles about other mermaids or mermaid community events were simply deleted, but what's WORSE is that more than one URL is subtly changed, making the links not work at all. "Hannahfraser.com" is changed to "hannafraser.com" and "mernetwork.com" is changed to "mermaidnetwork.com." Some are even sneakier, they'll have a single character changed- an extended URL will have a period dropped out, or have "community" spelled with one M. You can't see that unless you actually go in and look at the code. That's not a simple editing error, you have to go through the URLs looking for something that people might miss.

You can see that all the edits were done from one IP address. Low. Just... low.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mermaiding&diff=653269774&oldid=648507113

PS, I've gone in and corrected these now. All the links should work.

[Mermaid Wesley]

oh shit really? O: whooooaaaaah.......... thats more than vanity... thats dreadful... i mean assuming it was her. It could have been anyone really, but.... i dont think its likely. how rude...

[Elle]

The Hannah Fraser link was still the wrong one so I corrected that

[Princess Pearl]

Oh, bother. I failed the captcha, that's why it didn't get fixed, Sorry, everyone, looks like I'm a robot! Beep boop.

I've resubmitted it and all the links should work now.

[Winged Mermaid]

Nothing's gone forever on wikipedia- there's always change logs, and you can even select different versions and compare them.

And looking at said change logs, you can also see the back end of what's been done.

For example, you can see that on March 24 there 15 edits, all made from the same IP address. Comparing the last version before that (dated February 23) to the final MArch 24 edit there's some GLARING changes. This includes changing the link to the Wreck Bar to Mermaid Melissa's webpage, as well as just throwing in a link to her website after a section about Annette Kellerman.

Some links to articles about other mermaids or mermaid community events were simply deleted, but what's WORSE is that more than one URL is subtly changed, making the links not work at all. "Hannahfraser.com" is changed to "hannafraser.com" and "mernetwork.com" is changed to "mermaidnetwork.com." Some are even sneakier, they'll have a single character changed- an extended URL will have a period dropped out, or have "community" spelled with one M. You can't see that unless you actually go in and look at the code. That's not a simple editing error, you have to go through the URLs looking for something that people might miss.

You can see that all the edits were done from one IP address. Low. Just... low.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mermaiding&diff=653269774&oldid=648507113

PS, I've gone in and corrected these now. All the links should work.

Man, that's low :( Urgh. Thanks for fixing it up, Pearl!

[AniaR]

Nothing's gone forever on wikipedia- there's always change logs, and you can even select different versions and compare them.

And looking at said change logs, you can also see the back end of what's been done.

For example, you can see that on March 24 there 15 edits, all made from the same IP address. Comparing the last version before that (dated February 23) to the final MArch 24 edit there's some GLARING changes. This includes changing the link to the Wreck Bar to Mermaid Melissa's webpage, as well as just throwing in a link to her website after a section about Annette Kellerman.

Some links to articles about other mermaids or mermaid community events were simply deleted, but what's WORSE is that more than one URL is subtly changed, making the links not work at all. "Hannahfraser.com" is changed to "hannafraser.com" and "mernetwork.com" is changed to "mermaidnetwork.com." Some are even sneakier, they'll have a single character changed- an extended URL will have a period dropped out, or have "community" spelled with one M. You can't see that unless you actually go in and look at the code. That's not a simple editing error, you have to go through the URLs looking for something that people might miss.

You can see that all the edits were done from one IP address. Low. Just... low.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mermaiding&diff=653269774&oldid=648507113

PS, I've gone in and corrected these now. All the links should work.

See... people call me jealous and whatever whenever I call out Melissa, or say I can't handle her as competition (which FYI she isn't) I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH HER BECAUSE OF UNDERHANDED CRAP LIKE THIS. And it affects the community. I can't stand the whole oh ignore it and be positive and pretend it doesn't happen good for her BS. If I did something like this people would go insane because they literally hold me to a higher standard than the self proclaimed world's best mermaid. Measly old me has to watch her Ps and Qs and constantly be told by the community about my poor choices. And I have never intentionally sabotaged or attempted to sabotage anyone else's business and I have so many things that she has done like this! (listed in other threads) but almost everyone brushes it off....

I am so done. -_- I hate that the community has evolved to the point where they brush off this stuff.

[Mermaid Mystery]

why should we brush this load of crap off? this is ridiculous, the "worlds best mermaid" is selfish and this is unacceptable! why should we let this go?


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[AniaR]

I'm not saying you should, it's just the typical response I get when I bring up 90% of the issues I see happening :p

[Princess Pearl]

The reason why I bothered to go in and check was because of the example you set, Raina. You shouldn't be the only one calling people out when stuff goes wrong. I honestly thought about leaving it alone, because I'm fairly new to the mermaid community and, like you said on your Facebook page, I don't want to ruin any opportunities I might have.


But I've seen similar crap pulled in other communities, and trying to keep on a happy smiley face while I KNOW that people are being treated badly nearly drove me away from doing work that I love, work that I have literally put my whole adult life into. It SUCKS. I figure, if you can create the opportunities for yourself that you have while still speaking your mind- the least I can do is check some Wikipedia change logs.

[Theobromine]

I gotta say, I agree with you Raina, I think Melissa and her "World's Bestest Mermaid" crap are pretty infuriating and I don't blame you one bit for being infuriated by it. We as a community need to support each other, not bring each other down. I don't think Melissa gets that.

[Theta]

Is there any way to have that IP address blocked for purposefully misrepresenting article info?

(Sorry I'm just jumping in here, but I was on Raina's fb thread, plus it's easier for me to be on at work rather than home because I've got a full keyboard there and I'm on my small laptop here. I'm working on a bunch of general edits for the wiki article to expand information.)

[AniaR]

Thank you pearl that means more to me than I can ever properly explain!

[Princess Pearl]

Theta's comment about blocking the IP made me go back and look at the edit page some more... and ARgh, she did it earlier as well! She deleted info about the Philippine Mermaid Academy, Mahina Mermaid, Sheroes Entertainment and Linden! Just to throw in more links about herself AGAIN!!! No wonder the page was up for deletion due to lacking "notability," these edits make it seem that there's only one freaking mermaid in the world!

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mermaiding&diff=647790644&oldid=645935553

Same IP. :headwall:

[Theta]

If you want, I can email Wikipedia in the morning. I'm sure they have protocols for situations like this. It really is ridiculous.

[Elle]

I think people need to compile some information for what they want to see on this page and we fix it.

[Merman Arion]

Theta's comment about blocking the IP made me go back and look at the edit page some more... and ARgh, she did it earlier as well! She deleted info about the Philippine Mermaid Academy, Mahina Mermaid, Sheroes Entertainment and Linden! Just to throw in more links about herself AGAIN!!! No wonder the page was up for deletion due to lacking "notability," these edits make it seem that there's only one freaking mermaid in the world!

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mermaiding&diff=647790644&oldid=645935553

Same IP. :headwall:

I don't get it. Where do you see the IP? :thinks:

[Winged Mermaid]

The link that pearl posted: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mermaiding&diff=653269774&oldid=648507113 The one that did all the edits, IP is in Florida.

[shimmygoddess]

That is as bad as someone buying your webdomain and adding an 's' on the end and having it point to their page....sigh


Nothing's gone forever on wikipedia- there's always change logs, and you can even select different versions and compare them.

And looking at said change logs, you can also see the back end of what's been done.

For example, you can see that on March 24 there 15 edits, all made from the same IP address. Comparing the last version before that (dated February 23) to the final MArch 24 edit there's some GLARING changes. This includes changing the link to the Wreck Bar to Mermaid Melissa's webpage, as well as just throwing in a link to her website after a section about Annette Kellerman.

Some links to articles about other mermaids or mermaid community events were simply deleted, but what's WORSE is that more than one URL is subtly changed, making the links not work at all. "Hannahfraser.com" is changed to "hannafraser.com" and "mernetwork.com" is changed to "mermaidnetwork.com." Some are even sneakier, they'll have a single character changed- an extended URL will have a period dropped out, or have "community" spelled with one M. You can't see that unless you actually go in and look at the code. That's not a simple editing error, you have to go through the URLs looking for something that people might miss.

You can see that all the edits were done from one IP address. Low. Just... low.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mermaiding&diff=653269774&oldid=648507113

PS, I've gone in and corrected these now. All the links should work.

[Winged Mermaid]

If you want, I can email Wikipedia in the morning. I'm sure they have protocols for situations like this. It really is ridiculous.

Yeah, I think that would be a good idea. Shes not only taking out relevant information on a bunch of others to put in a bunch of her info, but purposefully sabotaging source URLs so they won't work. :anger explode:

[PearlieMae]

Seconded!

[Merman Arion]

The link that pearl posted: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mermaiding&diff=653269774&oldid=648507113 The one that did all the edits, IP is in Florida.

And there we thought she couldn't be lower than usual.. We presumed wrong :doh:

I guess that person doesn't have any ethic. At all.

[AniaR]

Theta's comment about blocking the IP made me go back and look at the edit page some more... and ARgh, she did it earlier as well! She deleted info about the Philippine Mermaid Academy, Mahina Mermaid, Sheroes Entertainment and Linden! Just to throw in more links about herself AGAIN!!! No wonder the page was up for deletion due to lacking "notability," these edits make it seem that there's only one freaking mermaid in the world!

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mermaiding&diff=647790644&oldid=645935553

Same IP. :headwall:

*pulls out hair* I seriously can't believe her gall.


If you want, I can email Wikipedia in the morning. I'm sure they have protocols for situations like this. It really is ridiculous.

You have so much work ahead of you... lol


I think people need to compile some information for what they want to see on this page and we fix it.

Not sure if I have you on FB but I have a huge thread going that everyone's posting ideas in and citations :) been at it all day.

[Elle]

Not sure if I have you on FB but I have a huge thread going that everyone's posting ideas in and citations :) been at it all day.

No, don't have you on FB. I don't think I have anyone from here on FB, I miss out on all the goings on outside of mernetwork

[Mermaid Alea]

:( This is so lame! I wish you luck.

[Mermaid Momo]

I only have a few people on facebook from here.

[Mermaid Wesley]

I only have a few people on facebook from here.

This is completely unrelated but I saw your picture on the orchard corset tumblr page and recognized you and it's like huh small world!


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[merserena]

My friend sort of helped make my dream come true by way of finding her. But what I found in her bio was a bit alarming:

Edit from my intro: I don't like that she worked/works at sea world with captive marine animals, because I don't feel it's right to do that. You should teach about the animals in their natural environment, but not held in a 25 foot tank, that doesn't have much swim room. It sent up a huge red flag with me. She seems to have an ego, purporting her being named Mermaid legally. We're all sisters, tail or not.

She's also not very social, and doesn't swim well with others. But I have found many other merfolk out there that are willing to talk, like people on this place.

[Elle]

My friend sort of helped make my dream come true by way of finding her. But what I found in her bio was a bit alarming:

Edit from my intro: I don't like that she worked/works at sea world with captive marine animals, because I don't feel it's right to do that. You should teach about the animals in their natural environment, but not held in a 25 foot tank, that doesn't have much swim room. It sent up a huge red flag with me. She seems to have an ego, purporting her being named Mermaid legally. We're all sisters, tail or not.

She's also not very social, and doesn't swim well with others. But I have found many other merfolk out there that are willing to talk, like people on this place.


Melissa is a mermaid performer. That's all she does. She promotes education through entertainment (swimming in fancy places or with animals etc), but doesn't actually educate people on anything.
Where as you have people like Hannah Fraser who is an environmental activist. Or with Raina, part of what she does is actually teach children something that is valuable to ocean conservation.

Melissa's more like "I look pretty swimming next to this manatee, yay for mermaids." It's a bit hard to be a voice for the marine mammals if she doesn't say anything, but that's her thing. I don't take her seriously as a conservationist.

[Mermaid Mystery]

me neither. she used to be employed by Seaworld but hasn't said a word about it as far as I know. posting animal pics on Facebook doesn't make you a conservationist????? honestly she rarely speaks up unless it's "look at me! I am mermaid! only mermaid! best mermaid!" how can anyone take her seriously


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[AptaMer]

Is there any way to have that IP address blocked for purposefully misrepresenting article info?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Blocking_policy

[Echidna]

Sadly, there are several performers out there who seek to obliterate any competition.
Melissa isn't the only one, but she is certainly very brazen in her endeavours.

I have time and again encountered similar behaviour (giving out false info to potential clients, pool managment, and the press, saying there are no other performers but them; removing info about other mers; stealing ideas, performance routines, and costume designs from others and when confronted about it, not responding at all).

Just yesterday, I contemplated whether I should bring it up on MN.
I don't want to appear like I'm slandering other performers or sound petty, but I would like to see the community be aware of said ongoings and hopefully make a stand against it, and this can't happen if no one ever says anything.

[Theta]

No, don't have you on FB. I don't think I have anyone from here on FB, I miss out on all the goings on outside of mernetwork

I don't have time to screencap the whole thread right now (it's pretty long) but to sum up: I volunteered (Hunger Games style lol) to edit the mermaiding wiki page, and maybe start a separate wiki that's more geared towards the community. I've put it in a word doc that I can send to you :)

[shimmygoddess]

If you simply state the facts then I can't see how that is slander. I have had a similar situation and have voiced my opinions on my FB page but yet to say much on here, mostly because I just don't feel like dealing with the drama. I do believe people shouldn't be shamed into staying quiet though. Noone deserves to be treated with disrespect or unethically, which is exactly what it sounds like in your case too. Seek advice for those you trust, maybe they can offer you some input.


Sadly, there are several performers out there who seek to obliterate any competition.
Melissa isn't the only one, but she is certainly very brazen in her endeavours.

I have time and again encountered similar behaviour (giving out false info to potential clients, pool managment, and the press, saying there are no other performers but them; removing info about other mers; stealing ideas, performance routines, and costume designs from others and when confronted about it, not responding at all).

Just yesterday, I contemplated whether I should bring it up on MN.
I don't want to appear like I'm slandering other performers or sound petty, but I would like to see the community be aware of said ongoings and hopefully make a stand against it, and this can't happen if no one ever says anything.

[Theta]

I've started editing. I just retooled the introduction and will be adding more as I type it all up and cite. I've got the original page saved in a word doc for compare and contrast later. Just a heads up.

[Seraphina Suds]

Good luck, Theta! That's quite the work load

[Echidna]

If you simply state the facts then I can't see how that is slander. I have had a similar situation and have voiced my opinions on my FB page but yet to say much on here, mostly because I just don't feel like dealing with the drama.

yes, same.
I talked with other members of my group, and we made a post about it, simply because saying publicly "I'm the only mermaid in the whole country" is, well, false :p

I could write a novel about this person and all the questionable (in her eyes, smart and business-savvy, no doubt) methods, but I'm not sure it would help to talk about it here, as it affects only the local mers where she operates.

The best thing is probably to do our own press releases every time when falsehoods are spread, but boy that gets old after a while, not to mention it confuses the public to always read differing info /sigh.
Maybe I should just move to another county and be done with it.

[AniaR]

I have time and again encountered similar behaviour (giving out false info to potential clients, pool managment, and the press, saying there are no other performers but them; removing info about other mers; stealing ideas, performance routines, and costume designs from others and when confronted about it, not responding at all).

Which is so annoying. one thing I will say though is that media sometimes fill stuff in themselves I found out when we were part of that recent big article in Canada. The author kept calling me "Canada's best mermaid" and I had to message her and say look, I appreciate the sentiment but I am friends with all the other mermaids in Canada and that's going to make them feel bad and resent me can you please not say that? Because I don't call myself that or think that.
They also misquoted me on several things along the lines of how many of us there are active etc and it just make me come across in a way I didn't appreciate.

Though most people intentionally do it I think. It just does happen that the media inflates.

[Echidna]

I've started editing. I just retooled the introduction and will be adding more as I type it all up and cite. I've got the original page saved in a word doc for compare and contrast later. Just a heads up.

Thank you for taking up this task!

Last I read the article yesterday, it seemed pretty good save for the ubiquitously inserted Melissa links (and the links she broke ofc, sheesh).
As for the "water ballerina"-thing (I've never ever heard anyone calling mers that tbh lol), I'd like to clarify the terms here a bit, as wikipedia doesn't have them all 100% right.

Feel free to use any of the following in addition to what there already is, maybe it can clear up some confusion.


-Synchronized swimming
was developed from water ballet.
It is a highly demanding olympic discipline with loads of FINA rules and regulations about how, when, and where to do which techniques and routines.
It is thus a water sport with a few show elements still left in.
It can be done solo or as a group.

-water ballet
can look similar to and contain techniques from synchronized swimming, but is freeform with no regulations attached, and usually has purely show character, meaning it's designed for entertainment.
It was widely used in Aquamusicals, mostly as figure swimming.
It is considered bad form though to stand on the bottom, all movements should be done swimming/floating.
(In synchro, bottom touch is strictly forbidden and will be penalized if it happens accidentally.)


There currently is no established word for a mermaid doing waterballet (which is different from someone simply wearing a tail and swimming in it, aka mermaiding).
I developed a waterballet style suited for tails, drawing on my synchro and dance background.
It's called Nixentanz (mermaid dance).
I also founded a group of the same name practicing it.

(We had pictures and videos of our training uploaded for a while, but we removed them after we found out everything we showed was copied and used by others, claiming they came up with it on their own.)



^^
I hope this will be helpful to understand the distinction between synchro, waterballet, and mermaid dance better.

[Theta]

I have to go do some stuff quick, but I've edited the history and intro, if you'd like to take a look and give me some feedback? I've never heard the water ballet thing either; I think it's a verrrrrrrry old term.

[AniaR]

Looks awesome! We just may need citations in there for them to allow it. When I get home I'll give you the info for some books and magazines I have that cover all that and can be inserted as a reference

[merserena]

me neither. she used to be employed by Seaworld but hasn't said a word about it as far as I know. posting animal pics on Facebook doesn't make you a conservationist????? honestly she rarely speaks up unless it's "look at me! I am mermaid! only mermaid! best mermaid!" how can anyone take her seriously


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It's in her bio on her website. I found it rather alarming.

[Theta]

There's a bunch of citations in all that I added (I don't see why they wouldn't allow my edits- I ganked some of the info from other articles :P ) I don't think the intro needs any more citations than it's got right now. I'll keep adding them as I come across them though :)

[Echidna]

Looked it over; it's now 9000% better ;)

great work on expanding on Annette, Esther, and the movies.

I'm still not sure if we need MM as the first and only mer in external links (either put several mers there or none), but other than that, it's perfect.

[Theta]

Don't worry, I'm nowhere near done yet :) I'm just going down the article and fixing/adding as I go. I'm going to beef up the external links when I get down there. Right now I'm working on new sections. I think the History section is pretty solid for right now (the good thing about this is we can go back and tweak it later on, yay!) I'm glad you like it :)

[Echidna]

:thumbs-up:

Be sure to save it all, in case M comes back and melissifies it again.

[Princess Pearl]

:thumbs-up:

Be sure to save it all, in case M comes back and melissifies it again.

Again, the beauty of Wikipedia. Every version is still there in the edit history- that's how I found what had been previously deleted.

[Theta]

I've got a word doc with the code in it- in case the tracking on it goes away or something (hopefully it won't, Pearl?) and also for ease of editing :) I also saved the text from the page before I started working on it.

[Fun123joker]

i dont get why people want to be the best mer. isnt being a mermaid good enough?

[Mermaid Alea]

Good job you all for working on this and fixing the edits. :thumbs-up:

@ Fun123joker - Some people want to be competitive at everything and be the best at everything. They want the lime light and the title of being the best or undefeated, etc. Some people take this to the extreme such as in a basketball game that is just supposed to be a fun camp event they push over little kids and shove people, etc when there isn't even a trophy. :gah:

[AniaR]

It probably just didn't show up on my phone. She worked seasonal at SeaWorld.

[Theta]

Just a heads up I'm in the middle of the materials section right now, but won't be able to finish it until later tonight or tomorrow morning (I've got to close the office and get home.) So don't worry, I'm not skipping/missing info, just not done yet.

[AniaR]

great job! it musta just been my phone didnt show the citations. They show up for me on PC :) looks fintastic thanks for all your hard work

[Merman Dan]

One pre-80s mermaid movie that always seems to be overlooked is Night Tide (1961) with Dennis Hopper.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLyoXFHYmpc

[Echidna]

It's a nice film, but not exactly what one imagines when hearing "mermaid movie".
Just like the Phantom of the Opera is not about a ghost or supernatural creature, but a man posing as one.

Pseudo-supernatural suspense stories were all the rage back then.
Today, the magic and the belief in it has gone so utterly out of our world that people long to hear stories about the real, genuine thing.

[Theta]

One pre-80s mermaid movie that always seems to be overlooked is Night Tide (1961) with Dennis Hopper.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLyoXFHYmpc

I didn't include Night Tide because there really isn't any mermaid action in it. There are a couple of shots of her in a tail, but none of her swimming in it. The movies and shows I put in the wiki are either seminal pieces of mermaid sfx or concepts, or have a high mermaid to human action ratio (swimming in tails, underwater scenes, etc.) They also serve as tail inspiration. There are others that didn't make the list- She Creature, which inspired one of Raven's tails, and a couple of others (that one with the green and purple tail that takes place in Greece? idk.) It's not an exhaustive list of mermaiding movies, just mainstays for mermaiding inspiration. The exhaustive list of everything mermaid can be found in the "Mermaids in Popular Culture" wiki, and Night Tide is listed there :)

(That being said, it's a pretty cool movie, and I'd love to see it retooled a bit and remade :) )

[Theta]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mermaids_in_popular_culture

[PearlieMae]

:clap:

Brava, Theta! Thank you!!!!

[AptaMer]

Hey Mermaid Theta (and all the other contributing mers)

Wanted to say thank you so much for turning these Wikipedia pages into works of art, and good resources.

[AptaMer]

Concerning mermaid filmography, the earliest film starring a mermaid was made in 1904, by French film pioneer Georges Méliès titled, appropriately, "The Mermaid"

You can watch it on YouTube here


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-dTU1wKh10 https://youtu.be/l-dTU1wKh10

[SeaGlass Siren]

and then were was also that other film (also entitled mermaids) with cher and wynona ryder. no mermaids either. the closest mermaid was cher dressed up like one. :|

[Theta]

Concerning mermaid filmography, the earliest film starring a mermaid was made in 1904, by French film pioneer Georges Méliès titled, appropriately, "The Mermaid"

You can watch it on YouTube here


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-dTU1wKh10 https://youtu.be/l-dTU1wKh10

That is so goddamn cool. I don't think it belongs on the mermaiding page, but I am going to go add that to the Mermaids in Popular Culture page right now. Thank you so much for sharing it!

[Theta]

and then were was also that other film (also entitled mermaids) with cher and wynona ryder. no mermaids either. the closest mermaid was cher dressed up like one. :|

Wasn't the title "Mermaids" a metaphor for something going on in that movie? All I remember about it is being terribly disappointed that there were no mermaids in it when I was a kid.

[Miyu]

Theta (and the others who helped to fix this wiki), you are awesome! Thank you so much for your hard work! :clap:

[Keiris]

Great job, Theta! You are very gracious to do that!

[AptaMer]

Concerning movies that have mermaid in the name, but doesn't feature a tailed mermaid in the show, Esther William's movie Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) was titled after Annette Kellerman's nickname, but there is no shot in the movie itself of a mermaid. Even though Kellerman became famous for her mermaid roles in films, in the swimming sequences where the heroine Kellerman performs underwater in Million Dollar Mermaid, she wears various versions of her famous swimsuits, but never a tail, even in the sequence where she's performing in a tank for a Hollywood film and the tank breaks.

Also, Annette Kellerman got her nickname because she starred as a mermaid in the first film to have a budget of over 1 million dollars to make (A Daughter of the Gods, 1916).

[AniaR]

I feel like the focus here is the verb mermaiding and I think movie mentions only relate to it if they offer something to mermaiding or influence it. You could do a wiki about mermaid films
The idea here is to flesh out mermaiding as a topic which I think Theta has done well

[Kishiko]

Theta, YOU ARE AMAZING!!! Thank you !!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mermaid Aika]

Great job, Theta!!!

[Theta]

All right, Monday morning, back to the editing grind :) I think that there are enough films listed in the Mermaids in Pop Culture page; they kind of go down the list of media and separate everything all out. It could probably be expanded on, maybe in conjunction with a bunch of SFX sections (CGI tails/real tails/underwater filmography, what have you) but I want to get through mermaiding first. Hopefully I'll have the sections about schools and conventions up today.

[AniaR]

I am necro posting in this because I am wondering if someone who likes to edit wikipedia stuff might add in a section about the conventions that have happened!