What do you think of long lists?

[ses5909]

Scott Ginsberg (http://hellomynameisscott.blogspot.com/2007/12/101-ways-to-create-powerful-web.html) has been posting lists of 101 items on his blog. SO many people do top X lists, but what do you think of lists like these? I typically overlook them as it seems to long to read but in reality, they usually end no longer than normal posts.

What do you do when you see these? Have you ever created one of these lists?

[Jelena]

I find them too long as well, and would usually skip those kad of posts.

[Robert]

It seems too long to keep the attention, usually with no real focus or detail. Seems to me it would be better to break it into subcategories and do lists of 10-15 at most instead, so you could explain whatever it is instead of simply mention it. Plus, that'd give you content for that much longer. I figure most people don't actually list out 101 things, much less without padding them, so they're mostly going to be recycled and collated from somewhere else instead.

[Evan]

A good rule of thumb is 7 + or - two. That is between five and seven items is a good size for a list (this comes from research on memorisation). Any longer and it can get eye glazing.

So if you have a long list break it into bite size chunks.

I tend to ignore list posts. Long list posts I don't bother with.

[deronsizemore]

To long for me. I'll skim the list and randomly click usually.

[FerrariDave]

I don't tend to mind long lists. However, I'll very rarely read the whole list from 1 to 101, usually I'd just skim through and pick out the points I want to read.

Smaller lists would probably be more appropriate as it would mean I wouldn't miss what could possibly be important points in larger lists.

[SarahG]

I don't tend to read lists. I don't find they hold my concentration unless the list is short and part of an actual post. These posts that are just '10 ways to drive traffic to your site' or '10 tips for this and that', I tend to ignore them. So if the lists are longer then I'll definitely ignore them ;)