My question was closed. :) Hahaha. Okay, so no offense taken. I get it. List questions are not real questions. I read the standards on meta, and realize (1) list questions can be lengthy/clutter up the forum, and (2) closing is a semi-democratic process as is re-opening.
However, one thing confuses me. What's the point? Plenty of people found my question above productive. I was personally very engaged as the answer meant a lot to me. In fact on other SE sites, I usually end up learning a lot from "list questions."
In 1 day, my question received 6 upvotes, 9 answers, 40-some comments, and 180 views. And ironically, one of the close votes came from a moderator who was actively answering and commenting on the question. :-) The dialogue was productive. The information was helpful.
So the suggestion is this: if this sort of question is considered clutter, then:
- Add a mechanism to tag questions as "lists"
- Enable people to filter their searches if need be
- Hide "lists" from appearing in the "Similar Questions" panel
Any measure seems better than closing a popular and useful question. And isn't a half-answered list question more clutter than a "fully-resolved" [sic :)] one?
PS. So that you guys know I did my homework, here's the related reading: