1) Lists are a staple of Digg, and the quality of overall submissions has gone down on Digg, while the number of lists in general is on the rise. There may be a correlation here... lets not find out
2) See point 1
C) According to the following (silly) patent by Channel Intelligence (oxymoron?), it is a list that is stored in a database on a computer - you might be increasing PG's liability - http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT6917941
v) Lists in general are less well thought out than an article yet are more readable. Combined, I think this takes away from the "stickiness" of an article, because I can quickly skim through it, get the point of an list and move on - with that information barely registering.
Sigh. It was an extension of the joke in the parent, based on the elaborate "25 reasons you're doing it wrong" (or whatever, I'm too lazy to look up the link) list that was high up in the rec list yesterday and the day before, and much maligned. So you see? I, too, (ahem) despise the facile and mocking reuse of negative catch phrases.
I guess subtle humor is just an epic fail on this site.
I, personally, try to save my clever comments for reddit. I attempt to abstain, here, unless I can say something that's germane, insightful, and original; or at least is a question I hope will provoke replies with those characteristics. Of course, if I can make it clever as well, all the better.
2) Voting on individual and particular comments on HN is arbitrary and capricious. You win some and you lose some for no fault of your own, or for that matter, for any particular cleverness on your part on a particular comment you made.
3) Only when the votes on many comments are aggregated that we can elucidate a particular trend.
Understood... but even getting the reference, and understanding part of your intent was to mock that 'doing it wrong' tone, I'd rather not feed that meme at all.
Oh mouse, I see where you're coming from as most "list articles" lack value and insight worth of HN, but I disagree with you that a ban on their genre is the solution.
Y'see, lists aren't inherently bad in and of themselves. If essays (like pg essays) are programs, list articles are like pseudo-code: they're bite-sized tidbits that give you an outline of what the author thinks the major points of his writing is about.
The problem with lists is usually two-fold:
If the list lists trivial and common-sense ideas without telling you why or how that works, it has very little value. This type work best as an element inside of an essay or as supporting arguments for another single central idea.
On the other hand the list items are non-trivial, the list format works against a full fleshing out of the non-trivial idea : the readers' focus is diluted by the other points and the points each get so long that the whole article is essentially a series of essays, boring the reader to tears.
