355 reads

Objectivity in Ranked Listicles

by Editing ProtocolJune 19th, 2023

Too Long; Didn't Read

The Internet is filled with low-quality, spammy, promotional listicles. They all say these are the “best”, without any objective proof. We don’t want that at HackerNoon. Thus, if you are saying something is the “best”, you need to tell us why. If you are writing a listicle about the Best X Companies or the Best X Tools. You need to tell the reader why they are the best, what they are the best at, and give us objective proof and reasonings for your rankings. Ex: Are these the companies with the highest reported revenue last year? Do these companies have the most active users? Are those the tools with the cheapest subscription fees? As you can see, every metric example above can be verified by the reader with a simple online search. If you list your rankings in such a way, they cannot be disputed or called out on social media.

featured image - Objectivity in Ranked Listicles

The Internet is filled with low-quality, spammy, promotional listicles. They all say these are the “best”, without any objective proof.

We don’t want that at HackerNoon. Thus, if you are saying something is the “best”, you need to tell us why.

If you are writing a listicle about the Best X Companies or the Best X Tools. You need to tell the reader why they are the best, what they are the best at, and give us objective proof and reasonings for your rankings.

Ex: Are these the companies with the highest reported revenue last year? Do these companies have the most active users? Are those the tools with the cheapest subscription fees?

As you can see, every metric example above can be verified by the reader with a simple online search. If you list your rankings in such a way, they cannot be disputed or called out on social media.