An Open Letter to Bitmob: Enough with the Lists

Hello all,

My name is Andrew, I've made a few comments on a few articles over the last few months and I have followed Bitmob since it was Sore Thumbs. I love the site, but a new trend has begun to bother me. I'll get to that later. First, some background information is in order.

Originally, I read Sore Thumbs in the aftermath of EGM's destruction because it was created by Shoe and Crispin, two writers that I had read for years. When Bitmob was created, I was immediately drawn to it because it was something different. Community members writing the articles? Crazy! Using my real name instead of "hotgamerboi69"? You're joking! Bitmob isn't a review site, the podcast tries to do something a little different and I really like the community aspect. Simply put, I'm hooked.

However, something stale and sinister has arisen lately that I think is detrimental to the site's uniqueness and overall awesomeness. Luckily there is a simple fix and I have but one request: Can we please stop the lists? Please?

I visit this site for different perspectives on gaming (which of course, it often provides), but more and more lately I feel like I have accidentally stumbled across IGN or the like. "Top Ten Best...", "Top 5...", "The 3 Best reasons to...". I'm not trying to single anyone out and I know everyone puts a lot of time into what they write, but the lists are quickly becoming old. Lists were old long time ago even in print, if you ask me.

I think it's awesome to see all the community articles that get promoted to the front page, but let's continue to push ourselves to think outside "The List", we are better than that. I do realize that the majority of posts are not lists, but let's nip this issue in the bud before it gets worse. Lists are a simple crutch that guarantees controversy and therefore, clicks and comments. Let's challenge ourselves to continue to write creative pieces that are different than what you get anywhere else on the web and that garner interest based on their creativity and insight. We can do it.

Sincerely,

Andrew Gregory

Tags: EGM, Mobcast, lists, Sore Thumbs

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Alejandro Quan-Madrid

September 03, 2009

I totally agree. Would you prefer lists of the unordered variety?

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Jazz English

The top ten reasons why I agree with what you just said... JK ;)

Andrew Gregory

lol, thanks guys. Also, note that I was editing and saving this not realizing that I was publishing it as well. Noob mistake. Now I am finished for real. I think.

September 04, 2009

Looking at the front page today, they keep coming.

Toby Davis

Yeah Lists are the new editorial :) J/K and I am glad that you are still around. As I remember your name from the Sorethumb Days.

Lance Darnell

Agreed. People should do all posts in Recipe Form. ;D

@Lance What recipe would you do it after? Slow cooker or cake?

For thought-provoking articles, slow-cooker.

@lance maybe lets give it a whirl next week / this weekend :)

Eric King

Rotisserie articles are great as well.:)

Chris "Cosmo" Ross

I just did a list. :'( Please don't hate me! It's my last list, for real! Just don't click it, okay? Okay.

@J. Cosmo Cohen lol, you are officially banned by me! jk, I'll check it out

Alex R. Cronk-Young

I think the list is different with Bitmob. We have Tobys discussion topics and James' Jukebox and now the Game Club. All sorts of ways that Bitmob is about the community. I see the lists on this site as a way to open up a discussion, not try to get some quick hits. If there start to be "The Top 10 Biggest Boobs of Gaming" then I could see your point. But I think a list of what games we want to see for download only helps open discussions.

@ Alex R. Cronk-Young I see your point. I guess the "Top 10 Biggest Boobs..." from other sites is exactly what I was targeting and I don't want to see Bitmob go in that direction. I could have made that more clear. I still stand by limiting lists in general. Of course, this could totally be a personal thing, but I feel like I can't be the only one getting tired of them.

@Andrew - Its probably a personal thing. I'm a big fan of all lists. Especially boob related ones. This site does have giant banners for tits after all.

@Alex R. Cronk-Young Ha, yeah I noticed that the other day when I was on a computer without Adblock.

Brett Bates

How about if we do a list of the "Top 10 Normal-Sized Boobs"? It's less objectifying that way, right? Right?

@ Brett - Yes, I agree. And we need to include pictures. Lots of pictures.

Dan "Shoe" Hsu

I definitely agree, and I also admit that sometimes, I find myself wanting to do a "list" article, too. It is easy -- too easy (as you said, a "crutch"). We actually made it a point not to do too many, so we'll try to be mindful of it. We generally hate 'em, too...but once in a while should be OK. We hope!