# Were there "lists" when you were in school? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 13, 2019, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047 "2019-03-13T05:32:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/1 "2019-03-13T05:32:50Z")
When you attended school, were there ever sheets of paper passed among the members of an ingroup listing/ranking other students at the school by specific criteria? A list of the most/least attractive, who you would most/least like to do/date, or whatever? Lists never really meant to be seen or known about by the people put on the lists? (Triggered by [this thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=872248) on the fallout of the discovery of a “biggest f\_\_s” list at a high school.) ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/2 "2019-03-13T06:32:19Z")
I was obviously in school before there was anything like Google docs. Or Google. Any kind of list would have to be on paper. With over 2,000 students in my high school there was plenty of room to spread around a list but if there were any I never saw it. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/3 "2019-03-13T06:39:21Z")
No. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/4 "2019-03-13T07:39:56Z")
not among students but the teachers kept a few amongst each other ---
**Author:** ![BobBitchin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@BobBitchin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobBitchin)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/5 "2019-03-13T08:02:24Z")
Yes, as I understand it, there were lists in my school. (graduated mid 80’s) All listings were carried out by girls. Just like passing notes, lists were a girl thing in my experience. I have no idea what their lists were, I assume cute list or shit list, but the teachers would take them and it was over…no FBI or anything. The only lists I ever saw boys doing was either lists of bad words, or the challenge to list all Zeppelin songs from memory. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/6 "2019-03-13T09:17:04Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > A list of the most/least attractive, who you would most/least like to do/date, or whatever? I went to high school in the 70s. Lists like that were printed in the annual (Most attractive, most likely to succeed, all with several runnerups), with occasional joke awards like the Kodak award at pep rallies. I never saw students personally with lists. \*Kodak Award – given by and amongst the cheer/pompom girls for the most underdeveloped and overexposed member of the squad. ---
**Author:** ![dba\_Fred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c37758/32.png) [@dba\_Fred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dba_Fred)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/7 "2019-03-13T09:49:40Z")
No “passed around” lists that I was aware of. The Yearbook had categories we voted on, such as _Friendliest, Smartest, Most Athletic, Cutest Couple_, ect. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/8 "2019-03-13T10:24:06Z")
Hah! I almost forgot. I was in band, and they passed around a list of humorous categories for people to vote on at the end of year banquet. I won “Most Likely to Die from Acne”. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/9 "2019-03-13T10:43:27Z")
A informal list by girls was used, there was a competition among 3 of them to see how many boys they could sleep with, or at least give a blow job to and if they could do their entire grade’s classmates. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/10 "2019-03-13T11:03:10Z")
If there were I was never aware of them. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/11 "2019-03-13T11:43:37Z")
I lived a sheltered life in an obscure part of the country in an isolated part of the world. Very little of what would be common elsewhere would match up with what I did at school. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/12 "2019-03-13T11:55:35Z")
This just got me remembering the slam books we passed around in the early ‘70’s. They were full of questions, many of the sort that provided bullying opportunities. And everyone passed them around and wrote down their answers and you could see what everyone else wrote. Kind of hard to explain the format - this link is pretty good, > **[THE SLAM BOOK: My Generation’s Version of Facebook](https://forcesofgeek.com/2015/01/the-slam-book-my-generations-version-of.html)** > > Social media...it can be one of the greatest things ever or the worst, depending on how you look at it. For some, the age of over-sharing is embarrassing and uncomfortable, for others, it is a They had innocuous questions like “What’s your favorite food. And less innocuous questions like “who wears the ugliest clothes” and “who’s the biggest slut”. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/13 "2019-03-13T12:29:27Z")
I was just coming in to mention slam books. I remember this one time, the question was “What do you think of Deana?” and \*somebody \*wrote down “tepid”. Deana had to look up the definition of tepid and then she was livid. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/14 "2019-03-13T12:31:16Z")
I went to a tiny little high school in the sticks. A list would have required a degree of literacy that those who would produce such a list lacked. Heh. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/15 "2019-03-13T12:53:33Z")
Apparently, there were lists by the “in crowd” on who was allowed to be a member and who wasn’t. My older sister discovered this by talking to a teacher. We were obviously not on the right lists. At my high school, there was a road that if you lived to the west of, you were pretty much out of contention. Not 100%, a few people from my neighborhood were allowed to be in the in crowd, but generally not. I couldn’t afford Nike shoes and Izod polo shirts, and my JC Penny knock offs were laughed at. There were certain benches in the main entrance hall that were occupied exclusively by this group so it was obvious who was in and who wasn’t. I was in the (mostly) non-Mormon D&D group. There was only one other Mormon kid involved. It was all nerds/geeks. I visited my best friend from high school some time after the 20 year reunion. People had returned a form with personal information such as which university they went to, work, family and such. At least 80% of the people who returned the form were in the in crowd. At least they opened the reunion up for everyone. The class president, et al of my sister’s class simply had reunions for the in crowd. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/16 "2019-03-13T15:51:53Z")
Not that I know of but I came into High School from the outside (another region) and never really blended in at all. Junior year, while everyone else was trying to figure out how to score some beer, I was trying to figure out how to talk this 27 year old chick with no morals into going to Bike Week in Daytona with me. My classmates and I were just on two different wavelengths. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/17 "2019-03-13T17:42:21Z")
Sure, although I thought of them as something that mostly the girls did. AFAICT I was never on any of the lists, although maybe I was just oblivious. The school was kind of clique-y, but I thought that was normal. It was jocks, stoners, nerds, theater, and some others. My friends and I were never in any of the cool kids’ groups but I can’t say it bothered me much. > [@Groucho Marx](#): > > I would never join a club that would have someone like me for a member. Something like that. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/18 "2019-03-13T17:50:24Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > Not that I know of but I came into High School from the outside (another region) and never really blended in at all. Junior year, while everyone else was trying to figure out how to score some beer, I was trying to figure out how to talk this 27 year old chick with no morals into going to Bike Week in Daytona with me. My classmates and I were just on two different wavelengths. So how was Bike Week? ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/19 "2019-03-13T18:03:59Z")
No. Small rural area school. About 200 students in the 4 year high school. I’m pretty sure a list of any kind would quickly get your ass kicked. If not by someone on the list, then their brother or sister, or the custodian who was somebody’s grandpa on the list. Or your mom, the teacher. And you wouldn’t want to piss off the principal or she would publicly remind you that she used to change your diapers. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047/20 "2019-03-13T18:17:20Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > So how was Bike Week? If it was anywhere close to what my imagination has come up with, well, oh my.🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-lists-when-you-were-in-school/831047.md?page=2)