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Saxonia Issue 02 Part 016
[0 Why are charts so unfair? - Another attempt of an analysis
by Lars "Ghandy" Sobiraj - staffmember of JP/PAiN & Diskmag.de
[l
Many editors previously bited out their teeths by writing about this
subject. I don't want to write about the same ideas why the Scene and its
charts are so unfair. I'll try to add some new thoughts here and there.
[2 "Why the heck do you fucking intellectuals think about everything twice
and more often, and try to interpret what's behind it?",[0 Xenusion asked
me while the Breakpoint party took place. A fair and good question, but
sometimes it's not only negative to think farer than to the wall and back.
Here are some examples why I think that the charts are not fair at all:
In Eurochart#46 in the editors charts there are some things that simply
cannot match the reality. Here we go - snip & snap: (copy 'n paste I
surely mean)
[1 Best Editors:
1. Darkhawk of IRIS 384 Pts. ( 1)
2. Ghandy of Scarab 250 Pts. ( 2)
3. Wade of Haujobb 145 Pts. ( 3)
4. Zerox of Gods 140 Pts. ( 4)
5. Fishwave of Scoopex&DCS 123 Pts. ( 5)
6. MOP of Essence 91 Pts. ( 11)
7. Zito of Scarab&Reason 79 Pts. ( 6)
8. Azzaro of MAWI&Floppy 66 Pts. ( 8)
9. Curt Cool of Depth 59 Pts. ( 7)
10. Jazzcat of Appendix&PSL 45 Pts. ( 14)
11. Lord Helmet of Spaceballs 42 Pts. ( 17)
12. RokDaZone of Ex. Endzeit 37 Pts. ( 9)
13. Sane of Haujobb 31 Pts. ( 13)
14. Slayer of Appendix 30 Pts. ( 10)
15. Darkus 27 Pts. ( 12)
16. Sagrael of Appendix 22 Pts. ( 18)
17. Makak 18 Pts. (NEW)
18. Puh of Agony 14 Pts. ( 16)
19. Gone of Scarab&Void 13 Pts. ( 20)
20. Magic of Nah-Kolor 7 Pts. (NEW)[0
[2 Point 1:[0 Why am I still at rank number two? I've not been that much active
during the past months/years. I've never been a writer of tons of articles,
not in 1993, when I wrote my first partyreports for The Charts & The
Jungle - and that is the same case until today. Which is mostly caused by
my extreme lazyness and my tendency to feel depressed and to
underestimate myself, even if there's no reason to do so. But explaining
that syndrome would fill another article and would lead far too much into
my personal affairs.
[2 Point 2:[0 Why is Fishwave still at no. 5 ? Yes, Adrian "Fishwave" Jaglarz
was a fantastic editor. But what does he have to do there at such a high
position? Issue 10 of Seenpoint came out in March 2000, three years ago,
and hopefully many if not all of you might remember that it was a quite
small issue. Afterall Fishy did only release it in order to bring out the
modules and titlepics his supporters have send him.
[2 Point 3:[0 What's with Lord Helmet on #11 or RokDaZone on #12? Why are
both placed lightyears in front of for example Gone or Magic?
[2 Point 4:[0 The good position of polish writers is something which is easily
explained. It just shows how many of the voters are located in Poland,
respectively what's the relation between polish and voters from outside
of Poland.
Except Sagrael none of the listed editors did write much if anything for
international diskmags. Not Azzaro, not Jazzcat, Slayer either. The
country with the majority of Sceners, or better say the country with the
most active Sceners when it comes to voting, that one has the greatest
force. And that is with no doubt Poland. Accept it or let it be.
[2 Point 5:[0 Why did Zito loose one position compared to EC#45 and is more or
less lost in space at number 7? Marc is somebody that needs this extreme
ego stimulation. Sometimes I have the impression that he really needs it
a bit too much. But otherwise a better position than this one would have
been really satisfied. Not only when it comes to the quantitiy of
articles, not only regarding the quality of his works - but mostly by the
fact that he's the main engine behind the whole Jurassic Pack project. He
has always submitted the most interviews & articles, he was often busy
motivating the other staff members (like me). And since issue nine he did
format the articles in the perfect way they're looking like. Not only
that JP would have been dead after issue 7 for sure - it's also a matter
of fact that Zito again and again was able to get me back in activity.
As I sometimes need a kick in my arse when I'm too much lost in my
lazyness.
If I would have cheated the editors charts of the EC - then they would
look like this:[1
01. Zerox / Gods (for his activity in 2002+2003!)
02. Wade / Haujobb (for his I fall with my knees on the
ground articles! They're just perfect!)
03. Zito / Scarab & Moods (for being the steaming machine behind JP)
Darkhawk / Iris (for being the man behind EC &
motivating Zerox to continue D.I.S.C!)
05. Ghandy / Scarab & Vantage (for being far too lazy and having a
too small output!)
06. Gone / Scarab (for the great stories he's publishing!)
07. Sagrael / Appendix (for his informative insights into the
Scene)
Rumrunner / Void (for his enthusiasm!)
09. Puh / Agony (for being one of my alltime favourite
editors!)
10. Darkus /ex-Iris, now PC (for having written some real nice
articles!)[0
I've cut the rest of the list because either these guys have only written
in a foreign language or aren't active anymore since a long time.
[l
[d Analysis
Let's go to the analysis. Why aren't those people, and in fact that's not
only the desaster with editors, why aren't those fellows leading the
charts that would deserve it? These strange results are the same when we
look at coders, graphicians, musicians, etc. etc. Just everywhere! Okay,
so let me try to explain it to you.
[1 Reason One: [2 NAME VOTING[0 - means that most votesheets are filled in a
hurry. If Darkhawk got ya in the irc and was able to force you to fullfil
your scenish duty, then most of you will surely do it in a short period
of time. So you ask yourself which names come into your mind. And that are
not those newbies saving the presence of the diskmag Scene, that are the
old schoolers, that mostly have left our ship lightyears ago. People with
a wellknown name, people with fame. All longtime Sceners surely remember
of some older articles from Lord Helmet, Fishwave or RokDaZone. So, as
your sparetime is limited, you vote for that guys whose names you remember
instead of the newer ones.
[1 Reason Two: [2 VOTES OF INACTIVE SCENERS[0 - means that often disconnected
people vote in Eurochart or in the Worldcharts. People that don't use
their Amiga or an emulator anymore, people that can only vote for old
names.
[1 Reason Three: [2 IMPATIENCE[0 - When I'm checking a new issue of a mag, I often
only read the headline and the first two or three sentences of a new
article and then decide if I go on reading or not. It often happens that
this way I skip stuff which could have been quite interesting. But if an
editor doesn't provide a good opening, many guys do it like me and so -
good, informative or amusing stories & articles don't get the recognition
they should get.
[1 Reason Four: [2 LESS INTERESTING TOPICS[0 - Gone is a real talented mate. I
really love to read his words but if I wouldn't be in the same group like
he is and if I would not share the history we do, then I would maybe also
skip his articles just because they don't seem interesting for me.
Fishwave cried out for more investigative articles in the Total Kaos forum
(http://totalkaos.de) And he's right to do so. People mostly want to know
what's going on in the Scene, what's happening inside the leading groups.
Publishing stuff that doesn't deal with the needs of the majority of
Sceners doesn't make it easier to get the votes you deserve.
[1 Reason Five: [2 MAINEDITORS[0 - the main persons behind a mag always get more
recognition than his coeditors. That was the case in the middle 90s and
that's true today. If you ask why Sane or Magic never were able to climb
up to an interesting position, then you might find the answer by the fact
that they've never been maineditors. Okay, Magic brought out Thing a long
time ago and was coeditor of many various mags, but even if he gave us a
lot nice material to read, he never went to the top. Darkhawk also
doesn't have a big output lately but he's the organizer of the Eurochart
and his first rank is surely also a sort of "thank you" gift from many
people that are happy that at least one chartsmag is alive. Thinking
about his quality, he was much better while he worked for Generation.
Maybe that was so because there was a big competition between the
Generation editors. You must have delivered something delightful, else he
could not have made his way inside the team. At least not with the
mediocre articles he's putting inside his own mags today. Yeah, it's
really a pitty if the competition is gone. For everyone, everywhere!
Concerning Darkhawk we should also not forget that he's one of the oldest
mates that are still alive and kicking - he began to participate in the
Scene a long time before for example I did.
[1 Reason Six: [2 CONTACTS INSIDE THE SCENE[0 - If you're in contact with many
Sceners via email, you'll easily get your votes. People see your name again
and again. They are often remembered by emails on which projects you are
currently working. Or they receive a sort of massmail, scenerelated spam
if you wanted to describe it a bit more honestly. And then later they
naturally vote for the person they've been in touch with. Writing many
articles is nearly as time consuming as writing many serious emails - so
that won't be a simple way to the top.
[1 Reason Seven: [2 PR[0 - Nothing is more important than the right public
relation. After releasing a slideshow, a diskmag, a demo, or intro - or
whatever, you should always post a news item at Diskmag.de and at Orange
Juice. [1 (http://ojuice.net)[0 Orange Juice is dominated by PC Sceners but
also there you'll reach many people you would not reach without your news
there. Submitting your product to Pouet [1 (http://pouet.net)[0 could also help
a bit. And if you're able to write in german, do the same with Amiga News.
That's an independant news station with around 1000 visitors daily!
What else can help to get your production become wellknown. Build up a
good looking homepage for it - simply as that. Give your link to Scenet,
Diskmag.de and Ojuice to optimize your number of hits. Also a news item at
Amiga.org or other non scene related news stations could be really helpful
- have a try. Here you can only rely on your own work, nobody else can
or will do it for you. And never underestimate the power of PR - your
product can be really cool. That won't help if nobody knows that it came
out. Better they read of your production one time too often than one time
too less. In the days of internet it's not hard anymore to advertise for
your stuff, it's rather easy and quickly done.
Well, that's it for now. And that is only an overview over the Editors
charts but having a closer look at the other categories, you will
recognize, that it's the same misery everywhere. In some aspects you just
have to accept that the situation is the way it is and in other aspects
your own engagement is requested. Musicians and graphicians might become
more wellknown by giving some of their works to editors of topical
diskmags. I'm not sure but that could be a major reason why for example
Reed of Fairlight did lead the musicians chart in the previous issue of
EC.
If you have other suggestions about the reasons why charts aren't reliable,
please don't hesitate to contact me by writing to [1 Ghandy@diskmag.de[0 - it
may take a while but I will answer for sure.
