Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in 100+ Reasons DemoListic May Fail

Re: 100+ Reasons DemoListic May Fail

tim@librarything.com — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 03:42:08 -0000

See also Listphile, ListsofBests, Listology... It's been tried a lot.

The main problem is, I think, that nobody gets up in the morning wanting to make "lists." Lists aren't an *interest*, they're a *genre* of interest.

People do make lists, but it happens in some definite interest-based social context. (People make tons of lists on my site, LibraryThing, but they're about books, and even there it's not general lists, but lists taking place within an interest group.) I could see a big list site growing out of a niche site--a site devoted to sci-fi might have a list section that grows into something bigger as the sci-fi people get comfortable with each other and want to know what the best fantasy novels are. Or maybe a list site could start by externalizing their technology, so you could add list-making functionality to your blog or niche site easily.

But a stand-alone site devoted to lists... I just don't see it working.

Re: 100+ Reasons DemoListic May Fail

Alex Moore — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:25:04 -0000

Best of luck to the DemoListic guys. I checked out the site recently was impressed with what I saw. I think collaborative lists are a cool idea.

Thanks to Paul J for giving us an honourable mention over here at Snagsta. We're a recommendation site that uses lists of your favourites to help you find things you'll like.

We just launched in private beta so if you'd like a test drive please sign up as a beta tester from our homepage: http://snagsta.com. Any and all feedback about our site will be greatly appreciated.

Re: 100+ Reasons DemoListic May Fail

Ed Metz — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:32:05 -0000

"Best of" lists are popular on the web, perhaps because they are useful in multiple fashions: a quick way to find a useful hack or trick; a marketing research tool; a purchase decision support system; and ... interesting reading for the just plain curious. At LayerLayer.com for instance, the focus is also on "lists of lists", but the lists are hand-picked for a "creative geeks" readership.

Re: 100+ Reasons DemoListic May Fail

Mike — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:13:44 -0000

3 days after this article gets posted, Adam Ostraw of Mashable posted a Sun Startup Essentials article "If You Like Our Lists, Youâ€™ll Love Demolistic", which seems to have been mysteriously removed hours after being posted. The Google Reader downloaded it though and the article seems much sober compared to the one here that writes off Demolistic off-handedly. Poor Demolistic, just because the Mashable boss wrote a previous fiery write off, the underling's helpful post got axed.

excerpt from Adam's article posted and deleted today:
"Mashableâ€™s Take

We like lists at Mashable, and usually publish at least 1 or 2 every day, ranging from 100+ More Ways to Organize Your Life to The Top 10 Video Apps for iPhone. While these posts often spur a lot of discussion and debate in the comments about the merits of the selections, the list itself doesnâ€™t change after we publish it. Demolistic is a service that focuses solely on letting users create lists, and then provides an interface where other people can debate the merits of each item on it. Additionally, other users can take a stab at any list â€“ for example â€œBest Ice Cream Flavorâ€ â€“ and Demolistic will publish a â€œconsensusâ€ list, which is an aggregate of how the different flavors place on all the lists that have been created for the topic. Taking it a step further, you can also comment individually on every single item on every list.

While this is a smart play on wisdom of the crowds and a popular concept, the crowd itself hasnâ€™t found Demolistic yet. The service depends on having a large user base to be fun and useful, and is a perfect example of the type of service that should integrate with Facebook Connect or MySpaceID to spur registrations and viral growth. "

Re: 100+ Reasons DemoListic May Fail

deepikaur — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:19:17 -0000

Another list site is MakeFive.com

Re: 100+ Reasons DemoListic May Fail

Matt — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:09:11 -0000

Demolistic looks like a nice, cleanly delivered service. Wish the scrappy team behind it much luck. Another fresh approach is the music list app at http://www.jamsbio.com/lists. It's built on a database of 4+ million songs where the people make and debate lists of their favorite artists, albums and songs associated with a particular list theme. A recent example related to The Cure: http://www.jamsbio.com/list...

Re: 100+ Reasons DemoListic May Fail

Paul J — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:34:28 -0000

UK startup snagsta.com is quite fresh in this space. They recently released a revamp of their site.

Re: 100+ Reasons DemoListic May Fail

Jason — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:40:42 -0000

What a lazy piece of journalism. But hey I guess its not related to twitter so its bound to fail in mashable's eyes...

Good luck to they guys who own it - it looks a fun idea, and just like my own site its ethos is in adding fun to being online rather than trying to be cool.

Re: 100+ Reasons DemoListic May Fail

Gadget Sleuth — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 09:32:30 -0000

Traditionally, if a larger company (or companies) have tried an idea, and it didn't work, smaller startups won't do a whole lot better. There are exceptions occasionally that serve to prove the rule. Hopefully, "Tyler" above has a better plan. Ad-supported and willingness to evolve are good starts.

Re: 100+ Reasons DemoListic May Fail

Jason — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:48:54 -0000

Hey Pete, did you even register or make a list? This is a bold write-up/critique; i'd be curious if you could add some first hand experience in usability, overall feel etc, before just saying this site will be just another failure.

Re: 100+ Reasons DemoListic May Fail

Tyler — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:23:54 -0000

We're ad-supported.

Pete's analysis is (hopefully) a bit off based on a couple incorrect assumptions made.

The project is hardly doomed to failure. From a financial standpoint, we don't have a team of engineers to support, as does Amazon. We're a very scrappy startup.

Secondly, Unspun was designed first and foremost to push products. That is a completely different goal. There may or may not be a role for user-generated list sites out there, but that comparison doesn't stick. Our approach is quite different from Unspun. Users build out their own lists, and debate, rather than just rating up/down and adding to a list-pool. Your unique version of a list is viewable and sharable. That said, we'll try to evolve if it doesn't work out.

Thanks for a coverage and feedback!

Tyler

Re: 100+ Reasons DemoListic May Fail

Dean Higginbotham — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 18:53:41 -0000

Pete,

Happen to catch how they make $? I disabled ABP but saw no ads.

Just curious.

Thx.
--Dean

Re: 100+ Reasons DemoListic May Fail

litleist — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 18:28:30 -0000

Maybe it useful for niche groups.

http://www.iamlittle.net/?p=89

Re: 100+ Reasons DemoListic May Fail

I think that it exists better and useful tools as user ideas spaces (www.feedback2.0.com)

Re: 100+ Reasons DemoListic May Fail

Eric Eaglstun — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 17:41:18 -0000

http://listopia.co.uk/ has some of the funniest lists I have seen.

Re: 100+ Reasons DemoListic May Fail

Ann — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 17:33:26 -0000

Thanks
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