Welcome to List-101

Where Top X lists come to die, consigned to the list equivalent of room 101.

Top ten list should consigned to a special circle of hell that is List-101, a little hell where these lists should be locked up forever.

1. Top ten lists are usually cut and paste jobs from other sites, lists or articles. This is not originality folks, you are not adding to the universe unless you’re commenting on each point and providing content; See 2.
“The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.” — Terry Pratchett

2. A top ten list on its own is not content. I don’t care if you added pictures. For it to be content then talk about the list, the good or bad points of what’s on the list and any possible alternatives.
“Don’t be consistent, but be simply true.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes

3. Top ten lists rarely cite sources, most are in fact lists put together by ill informed Muppet’s with no real idea what they are talking about. See this list for example.
“A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history – with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.” — Mitch Ratcliffe

4. Humour lists normally display the level of wit and wisdom drivelled by the affable idiot G. W. Bush.
“It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.” — Douglas Adams

5. My Bestist Top Ten Goats! Really, who cares. If you’re going to put together one of these rubbish lists at least try and make it interesting. Please.
“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.” — Mark Twain

6. All top ten lists need at least one bitch about Apple, Google, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Linux or Open Source. Delete as your blind bias demands.
“I have no use for bodyguards, but I have very specific use for two highly trained certified public accountants.” — Elvis Presley

7. Top ten lists are loved and reviled in equal measures. Don’t let the love and page impressions blind you, those that love you don’t know any better.
“Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.” — Rich Cook

8. If you write a top ten list you’re jumping the shark while whistling Dixie and dressed in rhinestones. It’s terminal but at least it’s a spectacle, right. Those impressions count.
“Jumping the shark is a metaphor that has been used by … TV critics and fans to denote the tipping point at which a TV series is deemed to have passed its peak.” — Wikipedia

9. These lists really run out of steam before the end, don’t they.
“You live and learn. At any rate, you live.” — Douglas Adams

10. They really suck and I’m getting really sick of them rotating on Digg, Reddit, del.icio.us and all the other link sites. Mostly because they all have the same approximate value, content and worth as fast food.
“Political correctness has no place in the arts.” — Kevin Kline

The list of lists. I’m going to start adding in lists here, please leave me any you come across in the comments and I’ll add them in. Be warned, this may drive you insane:

Top 10 Killer Post Ideas! – Oh really?
10 Ways to Relaxify Your Workspace – Relaxify?!
10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job – Or how not to eat on zero dollars a day?
Top 10 Tallest Buildings in the World – Um, top ten cheeses next?
The 100 science fiction books you just have to read! – Aside from the obnoxious use of an exclamation mark this is pretty good, some meat to the top x bone. Not that I agree with the book rankings. Gibson so low? Where’s the Elijah Bailey series by Asimov?
The Top Ten Design Mistakes
The Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs
Top Ten Stock Photography Cliches
The top 10 unintentionally worst company URLs
Top Ten Comic Book Movies
Top 10 free and cheap productivity tools – Any list that starts with pen and paper needed to be stopped before it reached number 2. Unfortunately that didn’t happen and the rain wreck goes all the way to ten, one of the worst lists ever.
Top 10 reasons why ‘Top 10′ lists are so popular
Top 10 Reasons You Might As Well Give Up
Top 10 summer cocktails – Lifehacker continues its spiral towards the abyssal depths.
Top 10 time saving applications – OS X Apps list.
Top Ten Fatetst Fast Food – Eew.
Top Ten OS X Screensavers
The Register jumps the shark. Again.
Forbes Top 10 most stolen cars (in the USA)
Top Ten video sites
Top ten beautiful mobiles – dear me, that’s near the bottom of the barrel. Top ten rubber bands next?
Top Ten Gaming Universities in the USA – Not the Top Ten Libraries I note. Priorities.

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