What happens is someone will read 30 blogs on blogging that say "hey lists are awesome," then whip up a random list without much thought, expecting fame and fortune.
It only works if you're either exceptionally clever, or are passing out some original information.
It seems like the normal readership are drawn to these kinds of list posts. Perhaps because they are "busy" and want to learn quickly by absorbing information nuggets. I question that they actually learn anything.
MSNBC (and by extension, their advertisers) has really been taking advantage of it by drawing readers to their many recent "top ten" lists.
Well there's different kinds of lists. A list could be a bunch of bullet points and <= 3 sentences each, or a narrow list of 3-5 where a lot is covered in each.
The latter can be extremely informative and provide a good starting point for someone. The former is filler.
It only works if you're either exceptionally clever, or are passing out some original information.