Fourteen reasons I hate list posts
June 30, 2009
Whatever it is you may blame it on, lists posts have muhsroomed out of control across blogs. I hate majority of them, and here’s why:
- You have to think of a conventionally acceptable number for your list. Fourteen seems off.
- They’re usually bite-size chunks of nonsense.
- This list item is here so I can hit fourteen. (See #2.)
- List posts turn HTML unordered lists into disordered lists.
- They tend to serve as linkbait, in spite of, or in accordance with, the author’s intentions.
- The comments sections of these posts are full of sycophants.
- Markup freaks like myself have to worry over OL, UL, or DL when Ps work just fine. (See #4.)
- Lists don’t generally lead to discussion.
- Santa Claus is the O.G. list writer. You’re all unoriginal.
- Everytime I come across a list post, I think of Jakob Nielsen. In fact, this post makes me think of him now, eew.
- The Book Of Lists fom the 1970s had more interesting stuff.
- They don’t offer anything new about the author who put it together.
- Lists generally get repeated into memes so much so that they drown out other quality stuff out there.
- And the final, and most serious reason: lists tend to enumerate, but they don’t usually elucidate.
Unordered? You list looks ordered to me.
I try, but I’ve got some major disorder going on in that list.
1. There is a big blur between lists and points. I suppose it is contingent on the cogency of the point versus the lack of same in a list item. Pointed lists are a good thing.
2. Listing is perhaps an art. One must make each item self-standing and on point, lest the reader misinterpret your intentions. But, if it is on point, then it is a point, and (1) applies.
3. A grocery list or a to-do list can be quite cryptic, yet be very useful to the lister, but totally useless to everyone else. Posts of similar construction have the same utility–to the poster, not the general reader.
4. This list makes points, so (1) applies.
Mannning, pointed lists are good, to a point. I’m still a big believer that that best writing out there can be expressed in paragraphs with supporting ideas and all. Unfortunately too few list posts go so far. The subject of this entire post is this: 25 Wesbites with Creative and Unique Layouts.
The author has presented his list, but what has he said about them? Nothing. It’s as if by the very virtue of his enumeration, he proves their uniqueness and creativity, to which I say, that it is logically fallacious to do so. The post above is merely one example.
The list format with which I have written this post is an expression of the wry irony I took. I hope that has not been lost among those who have stumbled here.
Seems to me you took off on the idea that some posters wallow in the list format, and that is anathema to the well structured prose approach. Of course prose is the better form, but there is also great virtue in compression of multiple ideas into a list format in order to provide a fuller range of thought in a small space. That is, if the listed ideas have just enough developed points to carry the message. I assert that pointed lists have their place in exposition alongside tons of prose.
Mannning I do not disagree with your assertion. I’ve written Bleat-style posts where I share three or four thoughts of two to three paragraphs each. I’ve made lists, too, in HTML list format or paragraph form. I’m well aware that brevity is the soul of wit but 140 characters—which seem de rigeur these days—don’t leave much to the memory.
Whom do you think did I intend to malign the most out of the original post? Even as a humorous list, How to Meet and Woo a Nerdy Girl has more value than that “they’re creative and innovative because I so enumerate them in this blog post” link that I shared in my comment above.
I take your point about the examples given. My initial take was from a general viewpoint, not specific to one or two blog pages. We have no substantive argument, I believe.
I believe we have no substantive disagreement.