Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Bowala

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 delete‎ . ✗plicit 03:39, 28 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Bowala

[Hide this box] New to Articles for deletion (AfD)? Read these primers!

(Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL)

Full disclosure: I saw this page based on a comment from a contributor at Wikipediocracy, a website I very occasionally visit and have commented on occasionally.

Also nominated:

This is a disambiguation page between three "villages" all with the same name separated by relatively short distances. These are clearly all the same "village". Going to each of the locations on GMaps I see no obvious village at 7°16'N 80°37'E, nor at 7°9'N 80°43'E, nor at 7°10'N 80°34'E.

Each of the articles is supported only by a vague wave in the direction of the Sri Lanka government statistics website. Searching on there I see a few references to a Bowala as an "agrarian service centre" (e.g., 1 2 3) and that's it. Bowala appears to be potentially just a farm, in which case the appropriate standard for notability is WP:CORP.

Doing a WP:BEFORE I see only results for algorithmically-created site and people with the surname "Bowala". The sole exception is the website "HISTORY OF CEYLON TEA", which appears to be user-generated content, and describes the site as a tea estate established in 1870, however there is no real detail here that might point anywhere else and the site is of course unreliable for being user-generated content. There is no Sinhala wiki article for these places that I can identify. It's also possible that Bowala is a neighbourhood within the Dangola district of the city of Kandy, but the sourcing for this is solely Google Maps based on Wikipedia itself and when I click on addresses within this apparent neighbourhood (e.g., Vimala Buddhi School) none of them describes themselves as being within "Bowala". The boundaries shown on the map appear to be those of Dongala.

The actual sourcing of these articles is unclear, but given their creator these articles were likely created algorithmically based on GNS data. GEOnet Names Server data has been found to be unreliable for whether a place is populated under WP:GEOLAND.

Needless to say that other mass-created articles about what are really farms/"agrarian service centres" in Sri Lanka also need looking at, because these are not actually legally-recognised populated places. This is yet another sad result of the contention that Wikipedia is a geographical dictionary and should have the same coverage as geographical dictionaries do, coupled with a determination to include everything listed within unreliable and/or misunderstood sources. FOARP (talk) 09:43, 20 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Sri Lanka-related deletion discussions. FOARP (talk) 09:43, 20 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: Geography and Disambiguations. Spiderone^{(Talk to Spider)} 18:46, 20 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Comment. Clearly not the same village, given they're separated by between 10 and 25 miles (that would be the largest village I've ever seen!). But I agree that there's no obvious evidence that they even are settlements. -- Necrothesp (talk) 10:19, 25 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Necrothesp, thanks for your response. What I mean by "These are clearly all the same "village"" is that it is highly unlikely that there are really three "villages" all with the same name within a couple of dozen miles of each other, and probably only one location with that name. FOARP (talk) 12:43, 25 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, ✗plicit 12:16, 27 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Delete Mass-created without adequate sourcing to establish notability, especially as three separate places. Reywas92^Talk 15:26, 27 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Comment there are indeed sources indicating multiple locations in Sri Lanka called Bowala, but it appears to mean something like “estate” with the term “bowaladar” meaning something like “landlord” (see here) (btw I don’t speak Sinhalese) so I think this sits along with Dr Blofeld’s Libyan wells and CarlosSuarez46’s Iranian water pumps. Mccapra (talk) 18:52, 27 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Delete - There's indication of notability for any of these places; we don't even have sufficient sourcing to definitively tell us what they are. –dlthewave ☎ 03:37, 28 April 2023 (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.