Not all list questions are off-topic

Question

I believe there is a misconception that all list questions are bad or off-topic. However, they are not all bad or off-topic. It is possible to ask good list questions. In fact, there are good and useful list questions asked before and kept open, so the community is accepting good list questions. Here are some examples:

• Words with "bi-" prefix that no longer mean "two"
  
• "Unicorn": what other words have this "cornus" etymology?
  
• Words for meat differ from the words for the corresponding animal

And recently:

• Unusual words to denote a specific length of time? Like fortnight but for different amounts of time
  Note: It was closed and re-opened; and people are trying to close again. However, I believe it is a useful question with useful answers.

Some historical questions are locked with the reason:

Locked. This question and its answers are locked because the question is off-topic but has historical significance. It is not currently accepting new answers or interactions.

For example: Hardest tongue twister seen

It is clear that the question above is a subjective, forum-like question so it is blatantly off-topic.

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It is nowhere stated that list-questions are off-topic.
https://english.stackexchange.com/help/dont-ask

One of the lines says:

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

I understand that a list question can be interpreted as broad but it is not explicit that all list questions are broad enough to fill up an entire book. Good list questions have a reasonable scope and they are usually narrowed down with certain criteria. (See the example questions listed at the top).

Examples of broad/useless list questions which should be closed as off-topic are:

What are examples of adjectives?
What are the words starting with dis-?
What words have Latin origin?

Subjective, forum-like list questions are blatantly off-topic and it is clearly stated in the "Don't Ask" page but it is not about list questions; it is about all bad subjective questions.

To prevent your question from being flagged and possibly removed, avoid asking subjective questions where …

• every answer is equally valid: “What’s your favorite ______?”

^{https://english.stackexchange.com/help/dont-ask}

Examples of bad subjective questions (list question or not) which should be closed as off-topic are:

What words sound best?
What is your favorite word?
What word is hardest to pronounce?

Good list questions are not subjective, they are reasonably scoped (or not too broad) and they are useful. Here reminding one of them again:
Words with "bi-" prefix that no longer mean "two"

Summary, possible solutions and expectations:

• Not all list questions are bad or off-topic; and they can be very useful and teach something. Good list questions are not subjective also.
• The community should have a way to keep good list questions, possibly by dedicating a tag with clear info. Or just keep the good list questions open.
• In my previous tag solution question, I've suggested that vocabulary tag can be used for good list questions; possibly by re-naming it, as "vocabulary" is an ambiguous term, but the final decision was removing it. There is also list-request tag which reads in the info that "This tag exists solely to indicate that these questions are [off-topic]"; however, the info can be updated in a way to accept only good list questions.

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A related question asked before on Meta
Are list questions always bad?

^{It is a bit different and it doesn't address all the points; and it was asked long time ago.}

Answer 1

The answer today is the same as it was ten years ago on MSE when it was written:

Questions that ask for a list are considered not constructive, as every answer is equally valid.

Generally, those questions are infinite, as a new answer could always be added; they also tend to be subjective. As such, those questions should not be asked, basing on what written in the FAQ.

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page.

To prevent your question from being flagged and possibly removed, avoid asking subjective questions where …

• every answer is equally valid: "What's your favorite ______?"
• your answer is provided along with the question, and you expect more answers: "I use ______ for ______, what do you use?"
• there is no actual problem to be solved: "I'm curious if other people feel like I do."
• we are being asked an open-ended, hypothetical question: "What if ______ happened?"
• it is a rant disguised as a question: "______ sucks, am I right?"

People will never stop asking those sorts of questions. That doesn't mean we should not close them. We very much should do so, for to allow them diminishes our site.

Why questions whose answers are all equally valid are not ours to answer

While it’s perfectly fine to consider whether time’s passage may have brought changes to the original conditions that once held when some question was answered, answers never spontaneously cease to apply simply because their question happens to have been “asked a long time ago”.

When it comes to building websites, just like constructing stone arches or mathematical proofs, there can exist certain timeless foundational principles which age cannot wither nor custom stale, lest an edifice built upon such keystones fall into irrelevance.

Too often before Stack Exchange’s foundation could it be difficult if not altogether impossible to find discrete answers to concrete problems in a timely manner. That’s because even when a helpful answer did exist somewhere, it lay hidden deep in some online discussion forums’s neverending threads of meaningless chatter.

This then was the problem that Stack Exchange set out to solve. We dare not risk allowing some parochialism of time to cloud our clarity of vision nor weaken our resolve of purpose.

Not only is it not our place to answer all possible requests that come our way, our continued existence depends upon this keystone principle remaining firmly in place.

Answer 2

With reference to the question linked in the OP's post, Words with "bi-" prefix that no longer mean "two", I'll note that the answers posted, with the exception of two, are not made up of lists. Each answer has one example of a word beginning with the Latin prefix bi-, accompanied by a brief definition and its justification, which makes the whole thing:

1. easier and faster to read
2. easier for users to cast their votes.

If it needs to be reminded, members are allowed to cast votes for more than one answer.

The answer with the most downvotes, in fact, provides a list of eight different words. Not content with that, the user also included a link that claims there are 4,615 words beginning with bi-. It's hard to fault the downvoters in this case. An answer about words devoid of definitions with a denial of etymology, is a bad answer, even if such a list did contain a few decent candidates.

In this instance, an answer that lists “biology”, “bitter”, “bitch”, among its suggestions when the question specifically said:

To clarify, I am specifically looking for the prefix of Latin origin meaning "two"

must be downvoted. Bad answers show why the website values expertise or just the ability to do basic research.

By allowing questions that are asking for lists of words, we are in fact encouraging answers that may contain up to 4,000 different words. OK, perhaps I'm exaggerating. But answers that list 7, 10, 13 or as many as 34 suggestions (the OP was closed four years later) are virtually impossible for the community to vote on. Whenever an OP accepts an answer that is a laundry list, I am often left asking which "word" or "expression" nailed it for them.