
To bloggers: those numbers in your titles (Top N reasons...) are annoying and superfluous - mojuba

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mojuba
... and no wonder most of the articles that mention some number in their
headlines are useless. Of course some of them aren't.

As for the articles themselves, numbering your thoughts means you can't really
_write_. Try it, you'll see that it is harder not to number them, but at least
your text won't look like a schoolbook.

~~~
grahamr
I agree with you that the writing is often not great.

On the other hand, I see a disproportionate number of "Top X reasons"-like
posts hitting digg and delicious/popular which leads me to believe that lists
resonate well with readers. I'm not a blogger or link-baiter, but I'd prefer
to write a mediocre article which is read thousands of times via prominence on
social media sites versus a 'well-written' article with no numbers/lists that
no one reads.

It seems like consumers of blogs and social media like lists, so bloggers
logically satisfy that need.

