We hit a record amount of visitors yesterday, nearly peaking at 60 thousand, so I thought it might be a nice idea to do a list of lists for the new people on the site. So here are the top 10 lists that are significant on the site for one or another reason.
10. Least Viewed List
The 10 Ages of Palestine
Page Views: 1,500
Comments: 8
We often hear about disputes in the region of Palestine / Israel and they are often over ownership of the area. It struck me that we could probably write an interesting list covering the various ages of palestine right back to pre-historic times to give us an overview of the people that have lived there. This was the result. Unfortunately it has shown very poorly and received only 1,500 views. It also ended up with only 8 comments putting it in the bottom 5 in that category as well.
9. Most Viewed List
Top 10 Incredible Recordings
Page Views: 200,000
Comments: 152
This was also one of our earliest lists and the first to become very popular on the social networking sites. With 1074 diggs, this list gave us the first major boost in traffic and it never really dropped after that. The list contains some very unique recordings such as an exorcism (and later the addition of a bonus recording, the exorcism tape that the film The Exorcism of Emily Rose is based on), the only recorded castrato, the worst female singer, and more. It is a great list that has remained our number 1 visited list since the day I put it up.
8. Best List
Top 15 Great Science Fiction Books
Page Views: 45,000
Comments: 142
This is one of our most commented on lists, and is also one of the least controversial. The majority of commenters liked the list. We also got many recommendations for extra books people may like in the comments, and over 60 books were bought from the list.
7. Worst List
15 Greatest Gangster Movies
Page Views: 6,500
Comments: 26
This list was hated by virtually every person that saw it. It was so bad that I did something I have only done once: removed it and rewrote it. It eventually became the Top 20 Best Gangster Movies which received a much warmer response from readers. This was the first of our movie lists that ended up being controversial.
6. Least Commented on List
Top 10 Most Wicked Popes
Page Views: 3,700
Comments: 0 (before I posted this list)
There are only two lists on this site without any comments so I had to choose. This is the list that surprises me most for its lack of comments as the topic is often a heated one. In this list I selected 10 popes who are famous for their evil deeds. It was one of the lists that I really enjoyed researching (particularly in relation to the famous trial of a dead Pope,) so I was disappointed to see such a lack of interest in it. In the future I will do a top 10 greatest Popes which will hopefully enjoy more popularity than this one.
5. Most Commented on List
Top 10 Unsolved Mysteries
Page Views: 74,000
Comments: 154
This list was very controversial because of my inclusion of the Shroud of Turin. Many people took offense and stated that it was not a mystery because of carbon dating tests. Much debate ensued and the situation is, of course, still unresolved. This was probably our first religious debate – though many have since erupted on other lists. some of the other mysteries on the list are the Mary Celeste, the Zodiac killer, and the Black Dahlia.
4. Funniest List
Top 50 Jokes
Page Views: 10,000
Comments: 95
It has to be the top 50 jokes. This was a fun list to do – I added the first ten jokes and our readers added the remaining forty. It was a hugely successful list and people still add new jokes to the comments. For your viewing pleasure, here is a sample joke:
An American, an Englishman and a Scot are at a bar. Each of them orders a beer. As the bartender sets their drinks in front of them, three flies buzz in and each of them land in a beer.
The American pushes his drink toward the bartender and says, “There’s a fly in my drink. Pour me another.”
The Englishman picks the fly out, shrugs and takes a drink.
A sudden noise makes them glance over at the Scot, who is holding the fly over his drink and pinching it, saying “Spit it out, ye wee thievin’ bastard!”
3. Most Controversial List
Top 10 Most Evil Women
Page Views: 100,000
Comments: 142
Boy has this list been controversial. It is not so much the content of the list (though there was some debate about notable omissions and the ordering) that caused the controversy – it was the revisionist debate over whether or not the holocaust happened. What surprises me most is that this list is more controversial than the top 10 evil men which sparked of an anti-George Bush debate.
2. Strangest List
Top 10 Most Bizarre Videos
Page Views: 80,000
Comments: 39
Featuring, of course, David Lynch. This is a list of video clips from YouTube rather than Bizarre movies, though I did include an excerpt from Jodorowsky’s Holy Mountain. These clips are all extremely strange and it is one of my favorite lists as a result.
1. JFrater’s Favorite List
Top 10 Incredible Early Film Firsts
Page Views: 4,500
Comments: 18
You no doubt all know that I love movies and this list is my favorite of all because it is about the origins of the movie industry and firsts within that same industry. It includes the very first piece of recorded film from 1888 (in surprising clarity), the first cartoon, the first talkie, and more. It is a great list – read it!