This infobox is setup with some diffuse and controversial claims and it is evident it has been made to evade Wikipedia's policies on WP:NPOV, WP:OR, WP:SYN and neutrality. The infobox is attempted inserted into various articles, which do not even mention SLTamils and have nothing to do with ethnicity specific history of SLTamils. Moreover Sri Lankan Tamils already have an infobox, but since some information contradict with the different Tamil claims, like the Tamil invasions (Elara invasion, Chola and other Tamil invasions) contra controversial Tamil claims to being native to Sri Lanka and having an independant country in the island, the infoboxes are being used alternatively. This kind of construction is unacceptable and contributes only to confuse the readers. I suggest the authour of this infobox defines the purpose and usage of this infobox and delete controversial claims like the Naga people, Kandyan convention, Kandy Nayaks, Elara, the Five Dravidians, Dondra Head to name a few from the infobox, and do not attempt to insert the infobox to articles specifically not about Sri Lankan Tamils until a clarification is made. 7 days to improve the infobox and specify its usage or merge with the existing one. Failing that I will be requesting deletion of this template. WP:DISINFOBOX and WP:NPOV, WP:OR, WP:SYN. Please also read guidelines for Infoboxes WP:IBT-- SriSuren ( talk) 13:00, 1 April 2012 (UTC)
Thank you for your contribution. Regrettably, you are convoluting wikipedia policies. The article in concern is not an infobox as Obi2canibe rightly points out. If you have concerns with the content of individual pages, as evidenced by you saying: "contradict with the different Tamil claims, like the Tamil invasions (Elara invasion, Chola and other Tamil invasions) contra controversial Tamil claims to being native to Sri Lanka and having an independant country in the island," May I suggest you go to the talk pages of individual articles. The articles I have only linked the articles in the navigation bar, I have no influence on the content. -- Avedeus ( talk) 16:56, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
Answer to Obi2Canbe and Avedeus:
I suggest the two of you read what you are talking about, before you start teaching others. Navboxes and sidebars are also infoboxes. Since Avedeus has admitted that this template is intented as a Sidebar it has even more serious problems, since it does not fulfill any of the criteria for a navigation box/template, either in the requirements nor in the coding. The coding of the template begins with class=infobox and not the {{Navbox or {{sidebar of the Navigation templates. Also a Navigation template is categorized under Category:Navigational boxes, which this template isn't. Besides those inadequacies, this template fails totally to fulfill any of the criteria for a navigation template, starting with the requirement for having an article on the subject. Also, according to the requirements all the articles must be on a single coherent subject and the subject should be mentioned in each of the articles and the articles themselves should reasonably refer to each other. As this template is obviously supposed to be a sidebar, the topics should be even more tightly related than in a navbar. None of the above mentioned requirements for a sidebar is met by this template and yet it is been continuously and aggressively attempted inserted into artilces such as the Kandy Nayakas an article which has next to nothing to do with the Sri Lankan Tamils. Many of the other links which are included in this template are not exclusively specific to the SL-Tamil ethnic group's history, but common to other ethnic groups' and Sri Lanka's history, and some like the Kandyan Convention is not even remotely connected to the Sri lankan Tamil ethnic group. Inclusion of these articles in a template such as this, which is supposed to be a series of articles on Sri Lankan Tamils, gives the wrong impression that these articles are more important to or solely about the SLTamils and not Sri Lanka or other ethnic groups of the country. Interestingly this infobox/navbox has not been attempted inserted into articles specifically and/or almost exclusively related to Sri Lankan Tamils, like the Jaffna kingdom or Jaffna kings, but to articles where controversies exist, like the Nagas, Ravana, Devinuwara temple, Dondra head etc. The Jaffna kingdom's only dynasty is not even listed in the template, but the template has been attempted inserted several times into the Nayaka dynasty of Kandy!!!.
Therefore, I think it is reasonable on my part if I do not assume good faith, as it is evident that the purpose of this template is to evade wiki policies on WP:NPOV, WP:OR and WP:SYN to give an impression that all these topics are solely about SL-Tamils. The template is therefore a deliberate attempt to push POV, by means of placing this template on articles as a marker, and not to facilitate navigation, as claimed. If navigation is the intented purpose of this template it would have included important articles on the topic, like the Jaffna dynasty. At any cost, the synthesis and POV which is being constructed within this template and its insertion into articles, is not acceptable. Also infoboxes/templates to be used in articles must be decided upon by consensus amoung the editors and no attempt has been made in the relevant articles to justify the use of this dubious template instead it has been aggressively attempted inserted by several editors sharing the same views, resulting in near edit wars. The authour of the template Avedeus, by his own admission is under the impression that any loosely connected article could be included in the sidebar he has made! As it is evident that the intended use of this template is beyond the legitimate scope of a navigational template, if there are no other comments from Avedeus, I'll be requesting the deletion of this template, on the basis that it does not fulfill the criteria for navbox/sidebar as described in the guidelines-- SriSuren ( talk) 20:34, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
Thank you for your concern, SriSuren. I wish you a good day.-- Avedeus ( talk) 00:23, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
Dear Sri Suren,
Navigation templates are particularly useful for a small, well-defined group of articles; templates with a large numbers of links are not forbidden, but can appear overly busy and be hard to read and use. Good templates generally follow some of these guidelines:
- 1. All articles within a template relate to a single, coherent subject.
- 2. The subject of the template should be mentioned in every article.
- 3. The articles should refer to each other, to a reasonable extent.
- 4. There should be a Wikipedia article on the subject of the template.
If the collection of articles does not meet these tests, that indicates that the articles are loosely-related, and a list or category may be more appropriate.
Navigation templates located in the top-right corner of articles (sometimes called a "sidebar" or "part of a series" template) should be treated with special attention, because they are so prominently displayed to readers. The collection of articles in a sidebar template should be fairly tightly related, and the template should meet most or all of the preceding guidelines. If the articles are not tightly related, a footer template (located at the bottom of the article) may be more appropriate.
I have taken out articles as per discussion above, ie I have taken out articles which do not mention Sri Lankan Tamils, and articles which are not solely connected with the Sri Lankan Tamils from the template, as per guidelines for sidebars and WP:NPOV. If the authour/editor wants to add them, then he must FIRST make sure that the guidelines for sidebars are adhered to. If these articles are added to this template without fulfilling the requirements, I will list this template for deletion on the basis that it violates guidelines on navboxes ( WP:NAVBOX) and policies on neutrality, verifiability and original research and we will take the discussion there. -- SriSuren ( talk) 04:05, 12 April 2012 (UTC)
This infobox is setup with some diffuse and controversial claims and it is evident it has been made to evade Wikipedia's policies on WP:NPOV, WP:OR, WP:SYN and neutrality. The infobox is attempted inserted into various articles, which do not even mention SLTamils and have nothing to do with ethnicity specific history of SLTamils. Moreover Sri Lankan Tamils already have an infobox, but since some information contradict with the different Tamil claims, like the Tamil invasions (Elara invasion, Chola and other Tamil invasions) contra controversial Tamil claims to being native to Sri Lanka and having an independant country in the island, the infoboxes are being used alternatively. This kind of construction is unacceptable and contributes only to confuse the readers. I suggest the authour of this infobox defines the purpose and usage of this infobox and delete controversial claims like the Naga people, Kandyan convention, Kandy Nayaks, Elara, the Five Dravidians, Dondra Head to name a few from the infobox, and do not attempt to insert the infobox to articles specifically not about Sri Lankan Tamils until a clarification is made. 7 days to improve the infobox and specify its usage or merge with the existing one. Failing that I will be requesting deletion of this template. WP:DISINFOBOX and WP:NPOV, WP:OR, WP:SYN. Please also read guidelines for Infoboxes WP:IBT-- SriSuren ( talk) 13:00, 1 April 2012 (UTC)
Thank you for your contribution. Regrettably, you are convoluting wikipedia policies. The article in concern is not an infobox as Obi2canibe rightly points out. If you have concerns with the content of individual pages, as evidenced by you saying: "contradict with the different Tamil claims, like the Tamil invasions (Elara invasion, Chola and other Tamil invasions) contra controversial Tamil claims to being native to Sri Lanka and having an independant country in the island," May I suggest you go to the talk pages of individual articles. The articles I have only linked the articles in the navigation bar, I have no influence on the content. -- Avedeus ( talk) 16:56, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
Answer to Obi2Canbe and Avedeus:
I suggest the two of you read what you are talking about, before you start teaching others. Navboxes and sidebars are also infoboxes. Since Avedeus has admitted that this template is intented as a Sidebar it has even more serious problems, since it does not fulfill any of the criteria for a navigation box/template, either in the requirements nor in the coding. The coding of the template begins with class=infobox and not the {{Navbox or {{sidebar of the Navigation templates. Also a Navigation template is categorized under Category:Navigational boxes, which this template isn't. Besides those inadequacies, this template fails totally to fulfill any of the criteria for a navigation template, starting with the requirement for having an article on the subject. Also, according to the requirements all the articles must be on a single coherent subject and the subject should be mentioned in each of the articles and the articles themselves should reasonably refer to each other. As this template is obviously supposed to be a sidebar, the topics should be even more tightly related than in a navbar. None of the above mentioned requirements for a sidebar is met by this template and yet it is been continuously and aggressively attempted inserted into artilces such as the Kandy Nayakas an article which has next to nothing to do with the Sri Lankan Tamils. Many of the other links which are included in this template are not exclusively specific to the SL-Tamil ethnic group's history, but common to other ethnic groups' and Sri Lanka's history, and some like the Kandyan Convention is not even remotely connected to the Sri lankan Tamil ethnic group. Inclusion of these articles in a template such as this, which is supposed to be a series of articles on Sri Lankan Tamils, gives the wrong impression that these articles are more important to or solely about the SLTamils and not Sri Lanka or other ethnic groups of the country. Interestingly this infobox/navbox has not been attempted inserted into articles specifically and/or almost exclusively related to Sri Lankan Tamils, like the Jaffna kingdom or Jaffna kings, but to articles where controversies exist, like the Nagas, Ravana, Devinuwara temple, Dondra head etc. The Jaffna kingdom's only dynasty is not even listed in the template, but the template has been attempted inserted several times into the Nayaka dynasty of Kandy!!!.
Therefore, I think it is reasonable on my part if I do not assume good faith, as it is evident that the purpose of this template is to evade wiki policies on WP:NPOV, WP:OR and WP:SYN to give an impression that all these topics are solely about SL-Tamils. The template is therefore a deliberate attempt to push POV, by means of placing this template on articles as a marker, and not to facilitate navigation, as claimed. If navigation is the intented purpose of this template it would have included important articles on the topic, like the Jaffna dynasty. At any cost, the synthesis and POV which is being constructed within this template and its insertion into articles, is not acceptable. Also infoboxes/templates to be used in articles must be decided upon by consensus amoung the editors and no attempt has been made in the relevant articles to justify the use of this dubious template instead it has been aggressively attempted inserted by several editors sharing the same views, resulting in near edit wars. The authour of the template Avedeus, by his own admission is under the impression that any loosely connected article could be included in the sidebar he has made! As it is evident that the intended use of this template is beyond the legitimate scope of a navigational template, if there are no other comments from Avedeus, I'll be requesting the deletion of this template, on the basis that it does not fulfill the criteria for navbox/sidebar as described in the guidelines-- SriSuren ( talk) 20:34, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
Thank you for your concern, SriSuren. I wish you a good day.-- Avedeus ( talk) 00:23, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
Dear Sri Suren,
Navigation templates are particularly useful for a small, well-defined group of articles; templates with a large numbers of links are not forbidden, but can appear overly busy and be hard to read and use. Good templates generally follow some of these guidelines:
- 1. All articles within a template relate to a single, coherent subject.
- 2. The subject of the template should be mentioned in every article.
- 3. The articles should refer to each other, to a reasonable extent.
- 4. There should be a Wikipedia article on the subject of the template.
If the collection of articles does not meet these tests, that indicates that the articles are loosely-related, and a list or category may be more appropriate.
Navigation templates located in the top-right corner of articles (sometimes called a "sidebar" or "part of a series" template) should be treated with special attention, because they are so prominently displayed to readers. The collection of articles in a sidebar template should be fairly tightly related, and the template should meet most or all of the preceding guidelines. If the articles are not tightly related, a footer template (located at the bottom of the article) may be more appropriate.
I have taken out articles as per discussion above, ie I have taken out articles which do not mention Sri Lankan Tamils, and articles which are not solely connected with the Sri Lankan Tamils from the template, as per guidelines for sidebars and WP:NPOV. If the authour/editor wants to add them, then he must FIRST make sure that the guidelines for sidebars are adhered to. If these articles are added to this template without fulfilling the requirements, I will list this template for deletion on the basis that it violates guidelines on navboxes ( WP:NAVBOX) and policies on neutrality, verifiability and original research and we will take the discussion there. -- SriSuren ( talk) 04:05, 12 April 2012 (UTC)