A dud Listicle

[Pulpmeister]

You see them everywhere: "listicles", or "articles" which consist of the Top 10 this or 24 incredible pictures... They exist to carry ads. Content is usually negligible.

There's a site called Ranker, which has a list of the top crime writers. Here's a sample, and adjacent to their names is a three-title selection of their works, no doubt to remind you:

4: Raymond Chandler: Double Indemnity, Strangers on a Train, The Big Sleep

5: Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon, Red Harvest, Watch on the Rhine

8: Elmore Leonard: 3.10 to Yuma, Joe Kid, Tall T

Double Indemnity by James M Cain; Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith but movie screenplays by Chandler and other writers too.

The Watch on the Rhine: a screenplay by Hammett, but not his book. And a WW2 drama with Gestapo etc.

And for Elmore Leonard's 3 titles, they're westerns. No mention of Get Shorty, Glitz, Gold Coast, etc etc, which are crime novels.

Oh, and Grisham is listed with 3 titles: The Firm, A Time to Kill, The Firm.
Wow! He wrote two different books called The Firm?

The public is invited to vote on these for ranking purposes. I vote Ranker as way, way down the rank of listicle sites.

(Incidentally, did you know that Chandler made a very brief, uncredited appearance as a extra in Double Indemnity? Just a second or so; he's sitting in a chair reading a newspaper when Fred MacMurray strides past.)

There, I feel better now.

[darryl]

Marketing has a lot to answer for. My pet hate are articles that may have reasonable content but are divided into sometimes ten or more fairly short pages which you must read if you want to read the whole article. Still, if we want things for free ....

[Apache]

Originally Posted by darryl

Marketing has a lot to answer for. My pet hate are articles that may have reasonable content but are divided into sometimes ten or more fairly short pages which you must read if you want to read the whole article. Still, if we want things for free ....

When I come across articles in divided pages I usually pass on reading them. Most have popup ads, are slow to load or just a plain pain.
Apache

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by darryl

Marketing has a lot to answer for. My pet hate are articles that may have reasonable content but are divided into sometimes ten or more fairly short pages which you must read if you want to read the whole article. Still, if we want things for free ....

I don't like those articles either. They also tend not to load the last page.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Pulpmeister

You see them everywhere: "listicles", or "articles" which consist of the Top 10 this or 24 incredible pictures... They exist to carry ads. Content is usually negligible.

There's a site called Ranker, which has a list of the top crime writers. Here's a sample, and adjacent to their names is a three-title selection of their works, no doubt to remind you:

4: Raymond Chandler: Double Indemnity, Strangers on a Train, The Big Sleep

5: Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon, Red Harvest, Watch on the Rhine

8: Elmore Leonard: 3.10 to Yuma, Joe Kid, Tall T

Double Indemnity by James M Cain; Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith but movie screenplays by Chandler and other writers too.

The Watch on the Rhine: a screenplay by Hammett, but not his book. And a WW2 drama with Gestapo etc.

And for Elmore Leonard's 3 titles, they're westerns. No mention of Get Shorty, Glitz, Gold Coast, etc etc, which are crime novels.

Oh, and Grisham is listed with 3 titles: The Firm, A Time to Kill, The Firm.
Wow! He wrote two different books called The Firm?

The public is invited to vote on these for ranking purposes. I vote Ranker as way, way down the rank of listicle sites.

(Incidentally, did you know that Chandler made a very brief, uncredited appearance as a extra in Double Indemnity? Just a second or so; he's sitting in a chair reading a newspaper when Fred MacMurray strides past.)

There, I feel better now.

You'd almost think these listicles are quickly cobbled together, poorly researched bits of fluff with click-bait titles targeted to maximize ad revenue rather than to educate the reader.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

You'd almost think these listicles are quickly cobbled together, poorly researched bits of fluff with click-bait titles targeted to maximize ad revenue rather than to educate the reader.

Naw, surely not.

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

You'd almost think these listicles are quickly cobbled together, poorly researched bits of fluff with click-bait titles targeted to maximize ad revenue rather than to educate the reader.

Maybe, but you won't believe number 6

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

Maybe, but you won't believe number 6

[Pulpmeister]

Oh, and how about No 16 for in-depth research:

John D. MacDonald Bright orange for the shroud, The Quick Red Fox, Isaac Asimov Presents (!)

At last we know what Tarzan's chimp is doing now that he's no longer in movies. He works for Ranker.

[crich70]

(Incidentally, did you know that Chandler made a very brief, uncredited appearance as a extra in Double Indemnity? Just a second or so; he's sitting in a chair reading a newspaper when Fred MacMurray strides past.)

Interesting. I didn't know that. I'll have to keep an eye out to catch his appearance if/when I get the chance to watch the movie.

[binaryhermit]

Unfortunately, I suspect clickbait works. If it didn't it'd die out.

[Pulpmeister]

Originally Posted by crich70

Interesting. I didn't know that. I'll have to keep an eye out to catch his appearance if/when I get the chance to watch the movie.

"Despite all of this, there he is, 16 minutes into the movie, sitting outside an office as Fred MacMurray walks past. Chandler glances up at MacMurray from a paperback he is reading, in hindsight a rather obvious clue about the true identity of this extra." From The Guardian, 2009