Talk:Plak-Tow (Star Trek: TOS newsletter by Shirley Meech)

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Page Title?

Use of the abbreviated name "Shirley M." in the title seems odd -- does anyone know why it was used? Is there a max length for titles?

I haven't found any way to edit it. Is it not possible to change a title, once created? Or is it only changeable by admins? Or am I missing something?

--Carol Pruitt (talk) 19:08, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

Just occurred to me that "Shirley M." could just as well refer to Maiewski as Meech, and therefore this page's title is not only missing some information, it's actually ambiguous. If page titles are limited to yay many characters, how about "Plak-Tow (Star Trek: TOS newsletter by Shirley Meech)" -- omitting the word "edited" (after all, she also wrote and published the zine) in order to allow room for her surname?

--Carol Pruitt (talk) 06:19, 14 August 2022 (UTC)

Moving pages is a Fanlore:Gardeners-level permission, which may be why you can't do it.
Titling this Plak Tow (Star Trek: TOS newsletter edited by Shirley Meech) could work. There are longer titles for pages such as Another Life, Another Dream (Beauty and the Beast convention) on this Fanlore, so length isn't a problem! Still, taking a look at the history of this page, I'm not comfortable moving it on my own, though, because it seems there's some history regarding the editor's name I'm not entirely familiar with.
At the time that the title was chosen, it appears that Shirley Meech's last name was not known or listed in the page. There also a period of time when it wasn't known which Shirley M was the editor. In order to be certain that everything is in order before moving this page to a new title, I would like to hear from User:Mrs._Potato_Head who edited this page at the time. Is this the right move, in your judgement? If so, could you handle this page move? Thanks! FireBatVillain (talk) 10:41, 14 August 2022 (UTC)

Thanks, FireBatVillain! I'd never even heard of Gardeners level, so that explains one thing. Apparently any possible uncertainty over which Shirley it was has been resolved, since Ms. Meech is credited in the body of the page. (And I can personally testify that it was her zine.) Hopefully User:Mrs._Potato_Head will be able to shed more light on the situation (as she usually does!). --Carol Pruitt (talk) 19:30, 14 August 2022 (UTC)

I made this page long, long ago, when Fanlore only tentatively mentioned full names of fans. Time has passed, culture has changed, and Fanlore along with that. So, changing it to using Shirley's full name would be okay. But as long as her full name is used on the Plak-Tow page, and on the Plak-Tow disambiguation page, as well as Meech's own page as well, I don't think it is really a problem as is stands. But if folks feel strongly about it, I'm not against the change. --MPH (talk) 19:41, 14 August 2022 (UTC)
Thanks for the history lesson, MPH -- I discovered Fanlore only a few years ago, so had no idea about all that. The only practical concern I can think of at this point is that someone skimming the page titles could wrongly assume this one is talking about Shirley Maiewski instead of Shirley Meech, conceivably leading to factual errors on pages referring to this one. Mostly though, it looks peculiar, now that the rest of the site is more professional-looking. I would be happy to change it myself, but apparently I can't -- so I have no idea how much work is involved. (I'm guessing the software may not have been designed to facilitate title changes!) --Carol Pruitt (talk) 21:49, 14 August 2022 (UTC)
I went ahead and changed it. The reason I was able to do this change is because as a gardener, I have some slightly elevated powers. --MPH (talk) 22:02, 14 August 2022 (UTC)
Thanks, MPH -- that's lovely! --Carol Pruitt (talk) 22:11, 14 August 2022 (UTC)