A few people have started asking for lists of lists so I thought a good one to start us off with would be the most commented on lists. Sometimes they are commented on because they are controversial, but sometimes it is just because they are so damned good! So, here are the lists that you have all contributed the most to.

10. Top 10 Most Depressing Rock Songs

Total Comments: 162

This list was very popular and surprisingly not controversial. Many people added their own choice of top 10 in the comments but there was very little debate. If you want some depressing rock songs – the ten on this list and the thousands mentioned in the comments will certainly keep you busy.

Read the list

9. Top 10 Amazing Facts about Dreams

Total Comments: 165

People are very interested in dreams so this list generated a lot of conversation. There was some debate over the truth of some of the points, but in general people liked the list. This one did very well on Reddit, which brought us a lot of new visitors.

Read the list

8. Top 10 Differences between Europe and America

Total Comments: 168

This list caused so much anger that I had to rewrite large portions of it. Before I had the chance (I went to bed after posting it) to change it, the number of comments soared. Of all the items on this list, this probably got the most comments in the shortest time (second to just one other here).

Read the list

7. Top 10 Common Misconceptions

Total Comments: 173

This one was very controversial – probably because people like to hold on to what they believe even if it is not true. People took issue with the section on Darwin, Hitler, Toilets, and even the chameleons! It is a great list by JT who has submitted many brilliant lists to the site. Oh – and it briefly stirred up a religious debate.

Read the list

6. Top 10 Worst Living Dictators

Total Comments: 177

Firstly, George Bush is not on the list. That, however, did not stop a large number of people from throwing him in and debating – this list became very heated. In fact, US civil liberties became the focus of the majority of comments.

Read the list

5. Top 10 Unsolved Mysteries

Total Comments: 179

Instead of political debate, this list ended up with a bit of religious debate due to my inclusion of the Holy Shroud of Turin. As with most of our posts here, though, the comments were all intelligent (especially mine!) and given in a good spirit. This list spawned two more lists due to its popularity and the number of great unsolved mysteries in the world.

Read the list

4. Top 10 Incredible Recordings

Total Comments: 182

This list hit the site two weeks after we launched. It was one of my favorite lists to write and it hit the front page of Digg and Reddit. The looking back over our graphs of traffic, the digg effect gave us a massive boost and the numbers never dropped. The most popular items on the list are the exorcism, the Jim Jones suicide tape, and the castrato. I have yet to produce a second list of incredible recordings, but you can be sure I will do so. If you know of any eerie or amazing recordings, let me know.

Read the list

3. Top 10 Most Evil Women

Total Comments: 184

This list was a very popular one – but my inclusion of two Nazi women caused one poster (Sakul) to put forward the revisionist idea that the holocaust never happened. In response, Loose Cannon defended the traditional view. Even I got heated in the comments and that is rare. The comments here are very entertaining. The photo above is of Irma Grese – otherwise known as the Bitch of Belsen.

Read the list

2. Top 15 Beatles Songs

Total Comments: 220

This was the list in which Randall (our resident novel-writing commenter) first drew a lot of attention to himself. He has since gone on to write many other intelligent comments that we all appreciate and has submitted a highly popular list. When people weren’t arguing about which of their favorite songs were missing, they were arguing about whether Led Zeppelin were better than the Beatles. I enjoyed the comments on this list immensely.

Read the list

1. Top 10 Stephen King Books

Total Comments: 240

I would say that most people visiting this site have at one time or another read a book or seen a film by Stephen King. His popularity ensured that this would be a popular list. Throw in to the mix a competition in which you can win a book by being the 100th and the 160th commenter and you have a recipe for the most comments on the site. It certainly worked.

Read the list

Not so long ago we did a list on the Top 10 Most Commented On Lists. It was a moderately popular list (as all our meta lists are) which starred as its top item the Top 10 Stephen King Books at 240 comments. I am pleased to say that that list is now only 9th on our list of the most commented. It seemed appropriate to revisit this topic after Christmas – especially as we move in to our second 6 months of existence as a site! So, here are our overall top 10 most commented on lists to date.

10. Top 10 Most Evil Men

Total Comments: 239

This is an interesting one – on the previous list of most popular comments, the Top 10 Most Evil Women ranked as number 3 with 184 comments. Now it is no where to be seen while the evil men have made an appearance. As you can probably imagine, George Bush Junior made an appearance in the comments and that is always guaranteed to incite a riot. And a riot we had! Loose_Cannon, Bucslim, and Frank had a rather excited debate about 9/11, Bush, and someone called Dick Cheney (I don’t know who he is). Fun reading – be sure to check it out! Oh – and whether you like it or not, Josef Stalin is still number 1 on the list!

View the list

9. Your View: What is the Most Influential Movie?

Total Comments: 239

So far we have only had 7 Your View posts and this one is number 5. It sparked a great deal of interest in our readers (probably because they all seem to be film experts in one way or another). I am not sure that we really came to a conclusion on which was the best, but I think Citizen Kane came close (luckily it was my pick!) If you are sitting at home and wondering what movies to download, check out the comments on this list. I am pretty sure ThePirateBay can accommodate everyone!

View the list

8. Top 15 Stephen King Books

Total Comments: 256

This is the only list which has made both the original and this list of top commented lists. Clearly Stephen King is an author with a large following on the List Universe. In fact, not only was this list on the first list of most commented, it was the number one list! No doubt it was helped along a little by the competition which awarded a book to every 100 commenters, but the quality of the list and the love of a good scare helped it along.

View the list

7. Top 10 Discontinued Sodas

Total Comments: 258

How could this list not do well? Who doesn’t like a good soda on a hot summer day? Fortunately we have a lot of readers who remember the 80s – and many of these defunct sodas were a big feature of that flamboyant era. Our only mistake? Leaving off Pepsi Blue. Thanks to StewWriter for this list which ultimately turned out to be his swan song!

View the list

6. Top 20 Beers

Total Comments: 274

I don’t like beer. I have not made any effort to conceal the fact. If I want to stuff my face with bitter tasting drinks/food, I will eat dandelions. Beer is inferior to Cocktails so I will restrict myself to cocktail lists (as I have done so far). Having said that, beer is a very popular drink and this list really incited some rage. This was the first time I had to turn instant comments off and put everyone in to the moderation queue – just to keep the site up. This list hit the front page of Fark which meant we got an immense amount of traffic in a very short time. I love people’s comments so I was very sad to have to disable commenting – but at least all of your views were aired the next morning when the worst of it was over.

View the list

5. Your View: What is the Best Rock Album

Total Comments: 291

I must confess – I planned this “Your View” knowing how sensitive people were on the site to rock music. I just knew it would cause a stir – and it did! On our first list of top commented lists, the Beatles list featured prominently (position 2 in fact) – because of a fight regarding the Beatles versus Led Zeppelin – I knew that this might occur again and I was not disappointed! Your View has now taken two top spots on this list – it is not going to go away!

View the list

4. Top 16 Awesome Fast Food Restaurants

Total Comments: 328

Okay – so we are all spending a lot of time on the net. For many of us that means no time for cooking. The solution? Fast Food! It can not come as a surprise to any of us that a list about fast food joints is going to be popular. Even those of us that have never heard of many of these places loved the list because this is food that sums up our innermost desires – quick, easy, cheap, and tasty! Fortunately we balance things out with real food lists but frankly, you can not beat a Big Mac. Congrats to BrotherMan for such a popular list!

View the list

3. Your View: What is the Best Movie?

Total Comments: 390

This was the first of our new “Your View” series – where we ask the readers (that means you!) to tell us what you think, instead of you simply taking our word. Obviously this was a popular choice of topic because we have so many intelligent film buffs that really know their stuff who read our lists. As I mentioned earlier, it is very hard to make a final decision on which film won out, but I will do so anyway! The best movie, according to you is The Godfather. Good choice – it was my pick too!

View the list

2. Top 20 Geek Movies of All Time

Total Comments: 574

So – frankly most of us are geeks – if we weren’t we wouldn’t be glued to our monitors every day reading the latest comment on the List Universe. This list had to be a winner, and, indeed, it was. These are the films that inspired us and ultimately led us to jobs in the “geek” industries – whether it be regular geek (read IT developers) or artistic geek (read designers). Granted, the list awarded a prize to every 100th commenter, but this is a topic that means so much to all of us that this list would have featured here regardless.

View the list

1. Top 10 Bizarre Biblical Tales

Total Comments: 1,165

You did not read that wrong – this list has reached over one thousand one hundred comments! This is virtually a miracle – not even Digg, Fark, and Reddit get that many comments on their posts! And believe it or not, despite the controversial nature of the topic, most of the comments were fair and polite. We had barely any personal attacks and I am certain that every person reading this list learnt at least one thing from the “opposing” team. Congratulations to the List Universe readers for being so open minded and generous with their comments! I am truly impressed (yet again).

View the list

Afterword

This site has done well in the popularity stakes, not because of my writing, but because of your well reasoned and intelligent comments. The 10 lists above represent 4,014 (four thousand and fourteen) comments. That is an astounding number of well thought out comments. To celebrate, I have made a new tee–shirt for the site which you can see above. If you want to buy one of these shirts, visit the List Universe Online Store. If you think you might prefer something else, we have heaps of great gear in the store so check it out anyway! All proceeds go to the upkeep of the site. Thank you all for your great comments and brilliant attitude!