This has been bothering me for a while, and I'd like to speak up about it. I see, with a much higher frequency than I would like, comments that look, with rather little variation, like
This question seems like a list question.
and which say nothing else at all. I would like to argue that these comments do not do anyone any good and they should not be posted at all.
Presumably the intention behind these comments is to initiate a closure procedure on the question they're posted under. To some extent, the description offered by the comment tends to be accurate, in the sense that they are indeed generally posted under list-based questions, but the (bare) implication that this means that they should be closed immediately is not. List-based questions can be on-topic on this site, which means that identifying a given question as list-based is not an ipso facto reason for closing it.
Now, there are indeed a bunch of good reasons why list-based questions are often such a bad fit for our format that the only reasonable thing to do them is to close them. These include:
- Many list-based questions are little more than junk food: they appeal to a broad userbase ('many users enjoy them') but the actual content they invite is quite low. They therefore invite many answers along the lines of "ooooooh, I've got one too" that add very little to the debate.
- They tend to be phrased in a way that invites contributions that are short / shallow / undescriptive, and this lowers the quality of the responses that show up.
- They have a particularly long half-life, staying on the front page for weeks and popping back up for months, thus taking attention away from newer content.
- Because they have a broad possible answer-space, most answers will either be too long or incomplete; this isn't fatal but it is a bad fit for our format.
- The existence of multiple equally-valid answers puts our voting system into a bit of a tailspin, and it makes its usage for sorting and validation much less useful.
Now, here is the important thing: we don't close list questions because they are list questions. We close them because of the reasons I stated above (or some suitable superset).
This then brings me to why a comment that says "This question seems like a list question" (and nothing else) is so noxious. The role of comments in Stack Exchange is to help clarify and improve the post they comment on, and that comment does nothing to help the OP (who will very often be quite new to the site) understand why their question might be problematic and how they could improve it to make it a better fit for the site.
In fact, that comment is a good deal worse than empty: the only thing that it really accomplishes is serve as a rallying cry. "Here", says the comment, "I've thought about this and I've come to the conclusion that it should be closed so you should vote to close it too" -- without even bothering to explain why the question should actually be closed, either to reviewers, other prospective closevoters, the OP, or future visitors. It is very little more than an attempt to shut down the debate.
So, say you've found a list question which you think should be closed, and you're itching to leave a scathing comment. What should you post other than just the self-styled-kiss-of-death "this is a list question" not-actually-an-argument zinger? Well, why not actually explain (from the reasons above, or otherwise) why you think this particular list question should be closed? That does have the seeming disadvantage that you'd have to think a bit before you close down someone else's discussion - but in this context that is a Good Thing.
So: explain what you mean, or at the very least link somewhere appropriate. Explain to the OP why their question is not a great fit for the site, and point them to a resource that tells them how they can improve it.
In particular, I think the canonical place to go is the meta thread Good list, bad list, which makes a pretty solid show of consensus that not all list questions should be closed, and explains the things to avoid and how those differ from the things to shoot for.