Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of towns in Central Province, Sri Lanka

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 03:28, 6 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

List of towns in Central Province, Sri Lanka[edit]

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Was speedy-delete-tagged as a copyvio of http://www.bhoomi.lk/srilanka_cities_in-Central_Province-3-a.aspx and http://www.bhoomi.lk/srilanka_cities_in-central_province-3-Y.aspx , but there are objections in its talk page:- Anthony Appleyard (talk) 05:46, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- keep The information in this article and similar articles were not taken from http://www.bhoomi.lk/srilanka_cities_in-Central_Province-3-a.aspx nor http://www.bhoomi.lk/srilanka_cities_in-central_province-3-Y.aspx. The names of the towns were from here and the article was also referenced, plus it is a list and there are others like it such as List of towns and villages in the Republic of Ireland, List of towns in England, List of towns in Wales, List of cities and towns in Russia etc. so I don't see what the problem is.--Blackknight12 (talk) 08:01, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- I think I got the links wrong then. A Google search gave bhoomi.lk link as the first result. But I am not sure whether editors allowed quote this much long list. However both bhoomi.lk and fallingrain are unreliable sources. I have no problem with the topic and indeed I think it is a must have. But I don't think it should be a copy/pasted list and superfluous one too. Best--Chanaka L (talk) 09:27, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

keep I am not sure a list of town names per se is copyrightable; the copy-past problems introduced in the article should be cleaned up, but once that is done, I don't see any reason why the article should not continue to exist. Presumably, Central Province in Sri Lanka has towns in it. Having a list of them is likely no less useful than List of cities and towns in New Hampshire or other similar articles. This appears to be primarily a cleanup issue... --Jayron32 05:51, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Keep A list of town names in alphabetical order is not protected by copyright law. Article seems to meet WP standards. Borock (talk) 09:27, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Comment I was thinking starting an AfD, not just this list but also for other provincial lists. I believe List of towns in Sabaragamuwa, and List of towns in Western Province, Sri Lanka meet CSD A3 criteria. I found several issues are there common to all 9 provincial articles.

Source: fallingrain.com is unreliable per WP:RS, if not inaccurate.

Creation:copy/pasted lists perhaps copyright infringing

Accuracy:misleading, factually wrong (Will explain below)

Quality:poorly formatted, a bunch of red links. Honestly I don't who's going to create them blue links.

Notability (data, not the list itself):Dubious and superfluous list. My home is situated in Central province, but I'm afraid except for a handful few, rest of these hundred of names I have never heard of. In Sri Lanka even private lands have names. (ref: Henry W. Cave, Golden Tips) So therefore there are may be hundreds tiny hamlets. Are they all encyclopedic?

In this list and other lists as well, a large majority of the names appear are not towns at all. There are in fact villages and hamlets. So proclaiming them as towns is wrong. In Sri Lanka, a settlement is considered as a town only if it has a local government structure. We have clear list for them, List of municipalities in Sri Lanka. Percentage of urban population in Sri Lanka is low, 26% as I remember, if we have this much of towns, why the urban population is so low. I believe our editors might notice the contradiction therefore the inaccuracy.

I would like to propose a remedy too. I have a 1:500,000 map of Sri Lanka by the Department of Survey (Sri Lanka). It is very reliable, up-to date, the standard scale for desk maps. I can create lists afresh using this map. It has around 25-30 labels pin a district, that would give 75-90 settlements in a province, and 650-800 settlements island-wide. I think it is a good balance between quantity and notability. Best--Chanaka L (talk) 10:57, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Comment this discussion should probably take place at Wikipedia:Copyright problems, where there are users more well-versed than we are in copyright law, rather than here. Bwrs (talk) 16:33, 5 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Note: This debate has been included in the list of Sri Lanka-related deletion discussions. -- • Gene93k (talk) 18:57, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Note: This debate has been included in the list of Lists-related deletion discussions. -- • Gene93k (talk) 18:57, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.