Talk:Mermaid

GA Reassessment

Mermaid

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch • Watch article reassessment page • Most recent review

Result: Kept. Hog Farm _Talk 02:10, 30 September 2025 (UTC)

There are uncited statements throughout the article. There is an orange "expansion needed" banner from 2022 at the top of the "Myth interpretations" section. There are a lot of small, one sentence paragraphs, negatively affecting the readability of the article. These should be merged together or removed if the statement is not needed. Z1720 (talk) 17:37, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

Just on the citations point, the article already has over 400 of them plus around 50 entries in the bibliography. If anything, they need weeding out, perhaps seeing if the best sources have material that could be used instead of some of the weaker ones. I don't think that adding more references just to increase the density of citations/refs is a good idea. --Northernhenge (talk) 17:55, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

@Northernhenge: I do not think the GA criteria is concerned with the quality of the sources (as long as they are reliable) or if an article has too many. However, editors are encouraged to remove lower-quality sources if a higher-quality source can be used instead. However, all text in a good article should be sourced (with notable exceptions like the lead) which means the article will need additional inline citations and possibly additional sources. Z1720 (talk) 18:07, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

Yes, it's a worthy thought but it concerns neither GA nor GAR. Chiswick Chap (talk) 18:17, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

• Keep, it's a rambling sea-beast of an article, but I've closed up a lot of short paragraphs, added refs, and removed a few bits of uncited or off-topic material. It should pass muster. Chiswick Chap (talk) 21:59, 7 September 2025 (UTC)
  • Thoughts Z1720? ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 17:06, 9 September 2025 (UTC)

• @Chiswick Chap and AirshipJungleman29: I added a few citation needed tags to some minor statements. The "Etymologies", section has a lot of short paragraphs and I think that section can be formatted more effectively. Once those are resolved I think this is ready for a keep. Z1720 (talk) 23:29, 10 September 2025 (UTC)

• Closed up the 'Etymologies' paragraphs and added refs to the minor statements. Chiswick Chap (talk) 07:25, 11 September 2025 (UTC)

  Z1720 - this is ready to close as keep, I believe. Chiswick Chap (talk) 19:04, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

• Keep. Concerns have been resolved. Z1720 (talk) 20:47, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Mermaid

you did not mention the painting of magritte . The head of a fish and women leggs. ~2026-39541-75 (talk) 09:55, 12 July 2026 (UTC)

I imagine that is because it is only tangentially-related to the subject of the article; not every depiction or variation on the theme is discussed or needs to be mentioned, and this is not how mermaids are normally or have historically been depicted. I note that the paintings you mention (the discussions I found by Googling the topic suggested there was more than one) aren't even discussed in our article on Magritte or of paintings by Magritte—perhaps they should be, but there are clearly many more important works of his. So it appears to me that discussing his paintings here solely because they invert the traditional depiction of a mermaid might be giving undue weight to a remote variation on a theme. That said, there might be room for a short mention. But that would be my guess as to why they're not already included. P Aculeius (talk) 14:07, 12 July 2026 (UTC)

Evil mermaid

evil mermaids or sirens live in the deep sea ~2026-48583-97 (talk) 11:00, 8 September 2026 (UTC)