Comments on: Amazing Meeple Geeklist

By: Alfred

Alfred — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 16:13:26 +0000

Just discovered the comments here…
Sturgeon’s Law, in terms of geeklists, is quite optimistic–if only 90% of geeklists were crap, we’d be in good shape. I guess I’ve gotten to where I don’t have particularly high expectations of them–thus, whenever any list appears that strikes me as particularly amusing (like the Meeples), enlightening, or (v. rare) helpful it stands out. I thought The Meeples was clever, rather than evidence of the apocalypse, personally. (As opposed to “Help me find a game my g/f will like!!!!, version 1.42 ho-jillion, both in Geeklist and forum thread form.)
At least the interminable parade of Ultimate Trade lists got its own section.

By: Naturelich Games

Naturelich Games — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 20:39:02 +0000

On the value of GeekLists

We all know our favorite: BoardGameGeek. BGG contains a plethora of valuable information on almost any game. Recently, Alfred’s Best of Blogosphere cited a link to a funny GeekList (a GeekList is list of games created by one or more…

By: Iain Cheyne

Iain Cheyne — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 12:10:32 +0000

I totally agree with Greg. Having said that, this sort of dilution of usefulness happens with every online forum over time.

By: Mikko Saari

Mikko Saari — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 19:48:15 +0000

There’s still no need to post a comment three times =)
I don’t know, I thought it was pretty hilarious, I had a good laugh of it and that’s definitely some value to me.
I do agree the “games I played last weekend” lists are pretty pointless, but what can you do? Ban creating anything but strictly useful lists? It would be nice, if one could easily recognise useful (or very funny) lists from the crap, but… how’s that going to happen?
One way to do it would be to automatically delete all the lists that nobody recommends after a while — after all, some of the lists are clearly quite ephemeral.
Anyway, I wouldn’t want to give up funny and “pointless” lists — good entertainment is good entertainment, even with the expense of a system that could in theory be very useful.

By: Greg Aleknevicus

Greg Aleknevicus — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 21:55:10 +0000

One of the very best Geeklists ever? Oh, my.
It is, at best, amusing. At worst, a prime example of why the Boardgamegeek is becoming less useful by the hour.
It’s possible to create a Geeklist that has enduring value but what’s the point? It will be lost among the avalanche of lists of:
* Games I played last weekend.
* Games I bought at a thrift store.
* Games I’m thinking about buying.
* Games with funny sounding names.
etc., etc.
I recently had a need to reference a Geeklist about Formula De. It’s on 306 Geeklists at present. 306! Very few of them actually had much to do with Formula De or had anything useful to offer. Finding the one I needed was a chore. In principal the recommendation system should help but in practice it doesn’t. People seem more likely to recommend a list simply because they find it “hilarious” than if it actually contains useful information.