Almost from the first days of the scene there have been charts around. We have always had the need to find out who is good and who is not, like in all other parts of the community. We like to have celebrities, someone to look up to... and we have something to reach for, a goal. But there's also another function with the charts. We get appreciation, recognizeition for our work and that can be good for our selfesteem and make us creating better productions. We always like it when others enjoy our work, and dislike the situation when the other sceners don't like our productions. At some time almost every mag had their own charts, in addition to all these pure chart mags. Some charts disappeared as fast as they appeared. There have been many good charts, the most known one is probably The EuroChart simply because it has been alive for so long and also because it has been very good during this time and always among the ones with the most voters.

As long as I can remember there have been some "weird" results in different charts... suddenly an almost unknown swapper had more votes than all the others together, other times it was a graphician, which used the scanner as often as a swapper used envolopes, became the nr.1. Especially in smaller charts some very strange results appeared now and then... but today it seems like it's more the rule than the exception... Overstatement? Perhaps. But never before have we seen so many weird things happen.





It seems to be much easier to enter a chart these days than before. Often it's enough just to manage releasing a production and spread it well. And you're definately on a chart if you manage to release something reguarly. It was not like this before for sure. To me it seems like the quality is decreasing. Because of the fact that less productions are being released, and because there are less voters, it seems like the standard of entering a chart is lower now. With the power of the internet it should actually be easier to get votes, and it should be easier to spread productions. And thereby making the charts a bit more reliable.

Since there are less voters it's easier to influence a chart. You don't need that many friends to enter a chart or even be among the top places. The result is that the quality of the productions featured at a chart is lower than before. So what can be done with the "weird" chart results? Perhaps reduce the number of entries at a chart? I don't know.

Another thing about the charts is the fact that the old legends are still being voted for and are still at the charts. Is this a sign of something fundamental wrong? Haven't the scene improved? Are there too few others to vote for? Or is it simply that people haven't upgraded and aren't able to to see the new productions?

Whatever the answers to my questions should be, I don't think charts ever can be 100% reliable and represent the true opinion of the majority of sceners and show which sceners are the most skilled. And this is probably not necessary either. The scene don't need "perfect" charts... just charts that indicate who's hot, and who's not.

Copyright: Another "Please-Vote-For-Me" Article To Stimulate The Ego Within.

Article taken out of the Amiga demoscene mag Jurassic Pack!