Talk:St. John's College, Jaffna

Merger proposal

I propose that St. John's College, Jaffna be merged into List of St. John's College, Jaffna people. I think that the content in the List of St. John's College, Jaffna people article can easily be explained in the context of St. John's College, Jaffna, since its only six lines and the St. John's College, Jaffna article is of a reasonable size that the merging of List of St. John's College, Jaffna people will not cause any problems as far as article size or undue weight is concerned. Furthermore at its current size List of St. John's College, Jaffna people can easily be included as a sub section of St. John's College, Jaffna and does not warrant a page of its own.Cossde (talk) 13:50, 13 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Support merge to main article until list is large enough to break away. The main article is easily large enough to accomodate the section. This will best serve visitors. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 14:37, 13 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose merger of List of St. John's College, Jaffna people into St. John's College, Jaffna - The only relevant factor when deciding if this article should be merged or kept is whether it complies with Wikipedia policies. This article complies with the relevant policies, both general (e.g. WP:VERIFY, WP:NOR) and specific (e.g WP:NLIST, WP:LSC). Size shouldn't be a factor if the article complies with policies. There are some featured lists of alumni with fewer than 100 entries (the minimum suggested by Cossde) e.g. List of Benet Academy alumni (23 entries); List of presidents of Washington & Jefferson College (31 entries); List of Athabasca University people (47 entries). Whereas there are some alumni lists with more than 100 entries which don't comply with policies e.g. List of Royal College Colombo alumni which has hundreds of entries but most don't comply with WP:NLIST and WP:VERIFY - it would never become a featured list. Finally, merging the contents of this article back into the school article would violate WP:UNDUE because the alumni/people list would dominate the school article.--obi2canibe^{talk contr} 15:32, 19 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Obi2canibe, your argument on the content of the lists is impeccable. However, as you said if this content proves to give undue wight in the primary article, then it clearly violates section 1 of WP:NOTDIRECTORY as a list of topics not suitable for this primary article.Cossde (talk) 17:37, 19 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This is not a directory. Many thousands of boys have attended St. John's College, Jaffna. List of St. John's College, Jaffna people only lists a tiny fraction of them, all with references to verify their notability. There isn't a single entry on List of St. John's College, Jaffna people which is less notable than the entries on List of Royal College Colombo alumni, List of Ananda College alumni, List of Dharmaraja College alumni, List of Mahinda College alumni, List of Maliyadeva College alumni, List of Nalanda College Colombo alumni, List of St. Anthony's College, Kandy alumni, List of St Peter's College, Colombo alumni, List of St. Thomas' College alumni, List of Trinity College, Kandy alumni, all of which pass your magic minimum 100 entries requirement. Indeed it is these articles, not List of St. John's College, Jaffna people, which are directories because of their large size and because they contain entries which aren't notable. List of Royal College Colombo alumni is in particular a directory because many of its entries appear under more than one heading, the essence of a directory.--obi2canibe^{talk contr} 11:02, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This argument is meaning less. First "your magic minimum 100 entries requirement" is not mine, I'm only following a suggestion of another editor, this suggestion as since been accepted by others. Secondly, if there are persons that does not meet Wikipedia notability criteria you can request them to be removed from the said lists. Thirdly, Royal College Colombo alumni list is maintained per Wikipedia:ALUMNI. The Category:Alumni of the Royal College, Colombo alone has 368 articles, more than any other Sri Lankan alumni cat. Cossde (talk) 14:53, 1 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]