Top Ten Best List Posts.

October 9, 2007 12:53 PM

List posts. Sometimes they are good, but sometimes they are bad. Something should be done?
posted by ND¢ to Etiquette/Policy at 12:53 PM (40 comments total)

No, nothing should be done, except deleting the bad ones and giving me mocha almond ice cream.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:58 PM on October 9, 2007

Maybe you could make a list of the reasons something should be done?
posted by JanetLand at 12:59 PM on October 9, 2007

I think that they can be fun and all and they aren't hurting anybody but, as I said in this thread:

I'm going to start a website called heywhatdoyouthinkofthislist.com where people just post lists of the top x y's and other people go "No way should z be on the list" and "Hey they forgot to put my favorite y! Bogus!" and I am going to call it Metafilter.
posted by ND¢ at 12:59 PM on October 9, 2007

Things To Do:

i) Nothing
ii) Flag bad posts
iii) Steal Brandon Blatcher's mocha almond ice cream
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 1:00 PM on October 9, 2007

I don't mean doing anything officially, but a little community shun off can be very effective. So if we all say "Sometimes list posts are not very good." then maybe someone will read it and not post "Best Octopus Death Scenes of All-Time" one day and a crisis will be averted.
posted by ND¢ at 1:04 PM on October 9, 2007

Would you kill baby Hitler?
posted by ND¢ at 1:05 PM on October 9, 2007

Something should be done about Steve Miller's gasping for air before each lyric.

As a sympathy-breather, it really bothers me when singers do this.

In fact, just reading the song you quoted made me begin to struggle for air.
posted by hermitosis at 1:06 PM on October 9, 2007

"No, nothing should be done, except deleting the bad ones and giving me mocha almond ice cream."

Oooh, is this the line for ice cream?
posted by klangklangston at 1:06 PM on October 9, 2007

Wow, ND¢. I request that the post be deleted, and you MeTa it anyway.

Classy.
posted by Afroblanco at 1:08 PM on October 9, 2007

and I am going to call it Metafilter.

I don't want to be a killjoy, but that domain is taken. Would you like some ice cream?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:08 PM on October 9, 2007

if we all say "Sometimes list posts are not very good."

It's true, sometimes list posts are not very good

then maybe someone will read it and not post "Best Octopus Death Scenes of All-Time" one day and a crisis will be averted.

I would like to subscribe to your strangledcephalopod tag.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:13 PM on October 9, 2007

Wow, ND¢. I request that the post be deleted, and you MeTa it anyway.

I wasn't MeTaing you or your post and I didn't mean to hurt your feelings or make you feel bad about posting it. It is a type of post that I notice a lot and this was just the most recent example. Sorry if I appeared to calling you out personally.
posted by ND¢ at 1:16 PM on October 9, 2007

Oooh, is this the line for ice cream?

Yes, but you're not on the list.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:18 PM on October 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

It's alright. I guess I just figured that you could have picked a post where the poster hadn't already bowed to peer pressure and requested a deletion.
posted by Afroblanco at 1:20 PM on October 9, 2007

And yes, I understand why you guys didn't like it. I'm not trying to defend it or anything like that.
posted by Afroblanco at 1:20 PM on October 9, 2007

then maybe someone will read it and not post "Best Octopus Death Scenes of All-Time" one day and a crisis will be averted.

You mean that the world would be deprived of what would most certainly be the very best of the web, right? Because I haven't really seen any octopus death scenes, but if someone made a list of the best ones, I'd definitely want to see them. They'd make pop culture history.

Seriously. Forget LOL cats. I'm thinking LOL-dead-cephalopods. Or just LOL cephalopods.
posted by brina at 1:20 PM on October 9, 2007

I'm just bummed that my screed on the illogic of anyone finding "a girl so fair" in the "darkest depths of Mordor" who, coincidentally, was taken by Gollum shortly thereafter, was killed in the posting queue.
posted by joseph_elmhurst at 1:43 PM on October 9, 2007

Welcome to List Universe, the number one source for top 10 lists on the net.

There. Somebody link to that, and we'll have done "lists" and can get back to focusing on the core MetaFilter post genre, "Whatever I've been listening to recently that can be found on YouTube."
posted by Wolfdog at 1:45 PM on October 9, 2007

Would you kill baby Hitler?

You know who else would kill baby Hitler?
posted by Dr-Baa at 1:55 PM on October 9, 2007

Baby [he who shall not be named]?
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 2:03 PM on October 9, 2007

Baby Ava?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:06 PM on October 9, 2007

No, wait - It was Scrappy Doo, warn't it?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:07 PM on October 9, 2007

Baby [he who shall not be named]?

He tried to bite him to death. And he would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for you meddling fused together teeth.
posted by ND¢ at 2:11 PM on October 9, 2007

I can't believe they included Kiedis mutter mutter and Californication of all things mutter mutter stupid pompous assholes criticizing people because they have nothing better to do with their time mutter mutter.
posted by Phire at 2:35 PM on October 9, 2007

Something should be done?

1. Nothing 2. Beyond 3. What has 4. Already been 5. Suggested, unless 6. You 7. Have any 8. Better 9. Ideas 10. .

posted by psmealey at 3:16 PM on October 9, 2007

I like list posts.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 3:37 PM on October 9, 2007

Could you give us your reasons, preferably ranked in descending order?
posted by InfidelZombie at 4:00 PM on October 9, 2007

I can get behind the ice cream part of this.
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:47 PM on October 9, 2007

What we need are more Lisp posts, dammit.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:10 PM on October 9, 2007

thorry, cortexth.
posted by Kwine at 5:25 PM on October 9, 2007

40. Dulce de Leche
39. Vanilla
38. Limon
37. Vanilla Ice
36. Butter
[Next Page]
posted by dersins at 6:00 PM on October 9, 2007

Here's a Lizst post. Can I have some ice cream now?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:08 PM on October 9, 2007

This thread is useless without Liz.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:32 PM on October 9, 2007

Here's a Lizst post. Can I have some ice cream now?

I've got my Chopin Lizst, but I B flat baroque.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:38 PM on October 9, 2007

Yeah, what is the thing with lists on the net at the moment? I can only assume some SEO-guru wrote some highly influential blog post some months ago explaining how making a completely arbitrary list of "the best this" or "the funniest that", complete with some basic research, is the instant way to getting your blog on the front page of Digg.

I mean there's not anything inherently bad about that - I've posted links to lists on Metafilter myself, but does anyone know why lists are suddenly blooming like a field of sunflowers all over the net?
posted by Jimbob at 10:38 PM on October 9, 2007

1) Write List Post
2) ???
3) Profit!
posted by Dillonlikescookies at 10:47 PM on October 9, 2007

Glad to see the shunning was effective.
posted by ND¢ at 4:51 AM on October 11, 2007

Glad to see the shunning was effective.

Heh ehe. I reckon FPPer fuse theorem is still blissfully unaware of any of this?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:56 AM on October 11, 2007

Well, I am blissfully aware of it now, since an admin pointed me here. I don't read every single post in MetaFilter, AskMe, or MetaTalk but I did a search before I posted my fpp and afroblanco's post was already gone.

Sorry I committed such as huge sin but I had no idea, a) that it was a double post; and b) that list posts are so offensive some people's tender sensibilities.

NDc, not sure "shunning" is the correct word. Looks like a number of people commented and were still commenting early this morning until it got deleted. But whatever, it's not the end of the world that there was a post some people didn't like...Consider me properly chastened.

Oh, and fandago_matt, I like what did up there.
posted by fuse theorem at 11:40 AM on October 11, 2007

Lots of people always comment in list posts. They say "I can't believe that they didn't put [insert example of what the list is here] on the list." or "They included [insert example of what the list is here] on the list?! No way should that be on there!" In other words, they don't inspire a very meaningful level of discourse, which is part of what I don't like about them. Another thing I don't like about them is how they are very much in vogue right now, so I see them all the time here or elsewhere. Finally, I don't like what I imagine is the very cynical reasoning behind those that create the things. They know that all they have to do is string together some kind of list of something and call it "The top ten [insert example of what the list is here]", slap in a couple of youtube links or mp3s and they will drive a lot of traffic to their site and inspire a lot of comments of the variety described above because people have opinions about things and are inspired to express them when they feel that they have been either validated or contradicted by a list. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of that, but it rubs me the wrong way. All these together, make me dislike list posts of the variety that you posted. I like lists of things that people may not be familiar with or of useful information, but "Top Ten Best Martial Arts Fight Scenes" or "Top Ten Best Sci-Fi TV Shows" or "Top Ten Rockinest Metal Albums" are just so much wankery, and in my opinion a waste of time.
posted by ND¢ at 11:55 AM on October 11, 2007