Rimmer’s “Holoship” mindpatch referenced in io0 article

[Ben Paddon]

Boom shaka laka.

Personally I hate blogs/editorials like this – lists don’t really serve any purpose other than to… I don’t know, fill space I suppose.

Topic

[John Hoare]

I’m in the middle of writing a “10 Great DVD Extras” piece at the moment.

They can be lazy if you do them all the time (obligatory Den of Geek reference here), but in moderation I think they’re a nice way of writing an article. Here, I think it’s a reasonable enough way of exploring a common SF concept.

[genericnerdyusername]

Lists are more for the person making them rather than the people that read them.

[Ben Paddon]

To be fair, an article covering DVD special features probably would pique my interest. The very first DVD I ever owned was Red Dwarf I and I’ve been spoilt by the abundance of features on the Dwarf DVDs. Movies seem to be doing a better job of including interesting content these days, but TV DVDs are terrible.

[Seb Patrick]

>Lists are more for the person making them rather than the people that read them.

… except if they weren’t popular with readers, then sites wouldn’t do them. But they are, and the stats back it up. They bring in links and readers, simple as that. You may not like it, but blame the short attention span of internet readers.

[Pete Part Three]

>You may not like it, but blame the short attention span of internet readers.

Yeah, I agree with…

That dog has a puffy tail!

[pfm]

Top 10 lists are easy and fun to read, partly because it’s likely there’s at least one show/moment/whatever that you’re a fan of and have seen yourself and you get a kick out of its inclusion. They’re good because they also work as recommendations for shows. AICN often even have the amazon links to the DVDs which, while being pretty cheeky, is a great idea that works. What with lesbian pussy tasting so nice it’s great business sense.

[Jonathan Capps]

I know this seems stupidly obvious, but it really depends on how well it’s put together. It’s a very useful template to use when you’ve got something interesting to say about a group of related ‘things’.

There’s a big difference between that and using list as a quick way to put no effort into a piece.

[Andrew]

Indeed. The good ones do what you always got asked to do in essays – compare and contrast.

It’s not just “Here’s eight ways a show has used invisibility” it’s “And here’s what’s interesting about the difference in the topic’s handling”. That certain DenofGeeks often neglect to do the latter doesn’t make the technique redundant.

*Sigh* Just realised I never did do that piece comparing the three I Am Legend film adaptations. Ho-hum…

[genericnerdyusername]

To be fair I wasn’t thinking about that list when I commented, I was thinking more about my friend whose made a top 100 list of his favourite films purely for the sake of it. But yeah, apart from that one particular situation I am utterly and gobsmacking wrong about everything. Ah well!

[John Hoare]

The thing that pedantically annoys me about most lists is that they rather oversell themselves. Say someone writes a “Ten Best Flms of Last Year” – how can they know this? Did they watch every single film made that year?

Yeah, yeah, I know, needlessly picky. But I’d be careful and call it “Ten Favourite Films of Last Year”, or something.

[JamesTC]

I like factual lists, opinion lists not so much.

[ori-STUDFARM]

I don’t mind any list as long as it’s not a single persons opinion. I enjoy a list that is voted for by listeners/readers/viewers etc…

Although, in fairness, it depends what the list is about also!

[Pete Part Three]

Content, good writing. That’s about it.

I can understand why it’s deemed “lazy” both from a writing and a reading viewpoint, but I rather like them.

[Tarka Dal]

> ?Ten Best Flms of Last Year?

1. Let the Right One In.

…just saying.

[ChrisM]

>1. Let the Right One In.

That’s one I’ve yet to see. I’d like to. It looks like they’re doing something a bit different with the vampire thing.

[Author]

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