Skyhigh 20 Shuze and Socks

Shuze and Socks



The shoe-man returns.

Sounds like a cheap 60's horror movie, right?

Well, you're close to what it is, if you think that.

Phew, its been a long hard struggle for me these
past few weeks to stay in the scene, as I had many
thoughts of quitting, mainly due to the fact that I
could no longer face writing notes to people, as I
usually scribble 10 or 20 pages, yet it was getting a
bit much. But, whilst thinking of quitting, a few things
came to my mind.

If I didn't have my C64, what would I do. Luckily, I am
not the complete stereotypical computer nerd, and I
do have a life, unlike so many sceners out there, but
I was thinking. What happens when my friends are not
around. Do I just play my guitar for a while? What
could I do? I ended up finding a lot of things I could
do instead of my C64, so that was not a reason to
stay.

Then I thought some more. How would I be able to
tell all my scene-friends that I was quitting the
scene? Could I easily split from the scene? I came
up with the answer that I could not. I could not just
tell people have known for more than two years,
which is longer than people I would call my best real
friends. It isn't that easy. I am sure it takes a lot of
willpower to quit the scene. Or one hell of a lot of
boredom of it.

Luckily, since my main "role" in the scene is as a mail
trader, I do not get bored easily, but if for example,
all I did was code, then I think it would be far too
easy to quit the scene.

Just on a personal note, I would like to thank:

CRUZE/TRC+SCS/LITHIUM
CRUZE/TRC+SCS/LITHIUM

For contacting me, as he is my 100th contact. Thanks
a lot!

So, I guess that means I am a megaswapper, eh? Or if
you side with Calypso, I am not. Yes, I'm referring to
those few sentences in Calypso's dropping note
where he referred to megaswappers, and how people
get 100 contacts, then claim to be a megaswapper. I
think Terry hit the nail right on the head.

Too often these days, guys are popping up and
claiming to be megaswappers. The worst case is in
Poland these days, where any old Tom, Dick, or Harry
can claim to be a megaswapper. "Yes", they say, "I
have 250 contacts! I am a megaswapper". Oh, so if
you are a megaswapper, how come I have never heard
of you? If you are a megaswapper, who do you swap
with? Most will reply "I swap with 249 Polish guys".

Surely that cannot qualify as megaswapping! It just
doesn't sit with me that a guy with 250 contacts can
call himself a megaswapper if in the course of his
megaswapping, he never spreads his groups wares to
the rest of the world! It is so stupid!

To put it down to basics, mail traders (I dislike the
term "swapper") are recruited into groups to spread
that group's wares by means of trading disks with
other sceners. Surely if a guy is only spreading his
groups wares to a limited audience, no matter how
many people, he cannot be a megaswapper.

It just doesn't sit right. If I swapped with 200 UK
lamers (by that, I mean the "new breed" of UK so
called "sceners" that are just after whatever
cracked games they can get their hands on) and all
of them were unheard of. No group would ask me to
join if they saw my contacts list!

Many Polish guys run around saying "I am a great
mail trader" although half of them do not even have
a contact outside of Poland.

That is just wrong.

And as for the term "megaswapper", I have my own
personal opinions as to what that is. My definition is
as follows:

Calypso.

He is the definitive megaswapper, combining speed,
quality, and friendship. Some people are just fast,
some just spread real quality, some are very
friendly, and some just have hundreds of contacts
they hardly ever send to. I think a mix of speed,
quality, and a big amount of contacts is the thing
people should be aiming to. If you don't think you can
handle having 200 contacts without being slow, then
don't even try it!

That was a lecture. I'll expect your homework in on
Monday, class....

---------------------------------------------

One of the (many) things which has annoyed me a lot
for quite a while now is the continued use of the
phrase "The Polish Scene". What exactly is it? Some
people will say:

"Ha, Shuze, you are lame, it means the scene in
Poland, did you not know that?"

Well, why should it mean the scene in Poland? Why is
it that the Polish get their own seperate scene from
the rest of us? The same applies to the Aussies. I
always thought (silly me) that the scene was the
scene, no matter which way you look at it. In these
days of trouble for the scene, why are we dividing
the scene up. When the C64 is resold in China and so
on, are we all going to say "You are the Chinese
scene, so bugger off" or are they going to tell us to
do the same?

It annoys me to see people so often referring to the
Polish scene, and people so often producing wares
only for the Polish sceners. Many things get made in
Poland that people such as myself never get to see,
simply because they are Polish! Surely we should
stop all this division, and just get together. I think
that is one reason why you can always tell if there
are a lot of Polish voters in a magazine's charts,
simply because relatively unknown magazines and
groups put forward their productions, to nowhere
but Poland.

An example is the cracking group Faith. From what I
have seen, they do some real quality cracking, but I
have only seen their stuff once or twice.

With the opening up of some Polish boards, then I
think the scene will take the Polish guys in a bit
more, but the thing is, the Polish are still too
seperated. Look at it:

Cruise is the Polish champion, and so is Hain. Nearly
all sceners see it that way. Its like, wow, Cruise is
Polish, so all Polish guys MUST vote for him, as a
source of pride. He is probably one of the greatest
artists around, but Polish guys seem to deliberately
vote for him just because he is Polish! It is so stupid
if you think about it! Can you imagine what would
happen if it was like that with Electric? Three votes
from Finland later.....

I am not sure how this problem can be overcome, but
maybe if Polish guys could find someone to translate
their stuff, instead of just producing all Polish
wares. I know I have mentioned this before, but it is
true. Like come on, Polish guys, what do you do when
you get a utility that has its instructions in German?
You panic, like me, as it means you cannot use it,
even if it is great! But, if it is in English, most people
have a vague idea what it is on about. So, I appeal to
you, join the rest of the scene, and leave your self
made title of "The Polish Scene" behind!

---------------------------------------------

Well, I strangely volunteered to do the charts from
now on, and I want to use the rest of my chapter to
explain a bit for you all.

When I asked Biz Kid if there was any chance of me
taking over the charts, he said alright, that's fine,
and I thought it would be an easy job. Many people
ragged on Caprice Design for occasionally getting
people's groups wrong, and missing some out, and so
on. Before anyone can even consider ragging, unless
you have done a charts chapter of the scale of
Skyhigh, you can just fuck off and die. I'm sorry, but
it is true. I was one of the people who said:

"Ha! So Caprice thinks Compyx is a member of Faces,
does he...."

So I have even more to climb down than anyone else.
When you have to try and get the groups of about
500 or 600 sceners, most of whom you have never
heard of, you have no chance! Many magazines just
omit the groupnames of people, or just do a top ten,
but Caprice's charts were always long, and after the
massive amounts of work he put in, rather than rag
on him, I think people should pat him on the back,
and say "Well Done" for the great organisation, and
the amount he got correct, instead of moaning about
the occasional mistake.

If you want to see what it is like, I'll send anyone
who asks all the Skyhigh sheets AFTER I have done
the charts, and you can try and record, organise
and sort out all the groupnames of people on over
150 sheets. And as Caprice had, I will give you a
deadline of only a couple of days.

Try it.

Anyway, now I have laid down some excuses so that
when I get the charts horribly wrong, I am pretty
safe (hehehe, that's me, Mr. Devious) I will get on
with explaining a few things.

Ok, in this issue, a few things have come back, like
A votesheet spreaders chart, as well as a list of
ALL voters, which will probably be in alphabetical
order, if I have time, but if not, then wait for next
issue for them to be sorted.

One of the other new things is that there is a small
list of statistics, such as where most voters came
from. This is to stop the disaster last time where
having a massive amount of Polish voters meant that
the magazine in the Polish language, Vitality, got to
number 7. Admittedly, Vitality is a very good mag, and
the group Albion do a very good job on it, but it is
silly that without any explanation, it could get to a
high place in the charts. So look out for that.

The charts are done using Doxx's Ultravoter 2.0 and
a hell of a lot of time.

After last issues mentioning of all the problems with
Camelot getting a lot of votes in the Skyhigh sheets,
I have decided that I WILL include Camelot and all
its members and productions in the charts. BUT, they
will not be given an official chart placing. Instead,
they are given a "shadow" place, which means that
if this was not a Camelot magazine, that is the place
which they would have in the charts.

That means, it is now alright to vote for Camelot
members, and the group, and also demos and mags
by them.

I thought it was stupid maintaining the idea that
Camelot could not be voted for, as I, Shuze, have no
connections with Camelot other than through Biz Kid,
so will not be swayed. Anyone who doubts my
integrity is perfectly right to do so. I say that, as in
case you have never edited the charts, you would
not realise the temptation that is there. You know,
you think:

"Hmm... I think Ignorance is the best, I'll slip in a
few first places for him..."

And so on. I had thought about it on many occasions,
but I did not. The reason is fairly simple. If I did that
what is the point in having charts? Why should we
ask you to vote if I am just going to falsify them?!?
I spend money photocopying votesheets, and I am
not going to waste that money just as a front cover
for me cheating the charts.

Although it would be nice to see myself at number 1
in the swapper charts, I would not do it, as then the
challenge all just disappears! Its a challenge to
get to the top of the charts, and I doubt Ignorance
would be happy to know I had maybe put him at the
top of the cracker charts, although he did not earn
the place!

That is the simple reason why you can trust me. I
have a few more problems than Caprice Design, as he
was a member of Plush, which (unfortunately) has
few high profile members, whereas in Alphaflight, I
could be tempted to put my two favourite crackers,
Ignorance and Ream, at the top of charts, along with
Calypso in the swappers, Zapotek in cover designers,
and so on.

But, for reference, any places that they get, if I
think it right or not, is what they were voted to.

Of course, my comments will betray my true thoughts
on the results....

I had thought about making a whole different
chapter with the charts info, like this, in but I think
it is better to keep it here, so you can see that it is
all my opinion. The charts are my domain, and when I
have asked Biz Kid what to do on something, he has
always given me the useful response of "Do what
you think it best....." Thanks a lot, Jesper.....

Anyway, I have gone on about the charts for some
time, and I will finish here, so that you can all maybe
go and read the charts, although I guess you will
have already....



Shuze/Afl'70


--------------------------------------------
Actually Shuze had rewritten this chapter, and sent
it to me, but something was wrong with the new one!
The reason why he changed the chapter, is that he
had reconsidered putting CML members and Skyhigh
staff editors in the charts.
Fortunately I succeeded in reading some of his new
chapter, so I decided that I would link the specific
text at his first attempt. So here you get the text
about his mind change! (-bk!!)

To you Paul: I dunno what happend with the new chap
ter from you; big parts were missing! So I hope this
solution will be ok to you! - bk!
--------------------------------------------

OK, now I am moving onto a subject which has caused
quite some controversy around me lately. I had
already written this chapter completely, and I had
declared that from now on Camelot would be
includded in the charts, and so would all the people
in the group. After much deliberation, I have
reconsidered this, as have decided that Camelot will
not have a place in the charts in Skyhigh, and that
goes for all members. Also, from the next issue
onwards none of the staff of the Skyhigh will find
themselves in the charts any more. In my comments I
will always tell you the position which the staff or
members of Camelot achieved, but they will not have
a ranking.

Sorry for any confusion to anyone.


Anyway, I think I will leave now, as I actually have
to go and do those damned charts, and I have gone
past my deadline by 3 days already.


Shuze/Afl'70

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