Scene charts
The top lists in diskmags where the scene ranked its own best groups, coders, musicians, graphicians and swappers.
Almost every self-respecting diskmag ran a charts section. Readers filled in a vote form bundled with the issue and sent it to the editors by post or via a BBS; the editors tallied it up and printed the results next issue. The categories mirrored the scene's division of labour: demo, group, coder, musician, graphician, swapper, cracking group and sometimes best BBS.
The system was trivially gamed — groups voted for themselves and asked friends to do likewise — and everyone knew it. Everyone read the charts anyway, because a top-ten placing was the closest thing to fame a scener could get. Today the ratings on CSDb and Pouët serve the same purpose, with the same problems.