There are not two issues here. Only one major issue. Clearly EA/Maxis is pushing the popular now section as a key factor in the overhaul of the gallery. I repeat, I do believe if this new system was actually functioning correctly, fairly, randomly as advertised and without the manipulative influence of a minority of simmers willing to do whatever it takes, to include "self download" and reupload, then I think we would have actually seen a better outcome than we did. I submitted my findings to the EA live investigative team back in October about the one major gallery flaw that is creating dysfunction in the whole gallery system. If the emphasis is going to now be even more focus on the popular now page then EA has a responsibility to respect their new and improved system by removing the method to cheat on downloads, period. Cheaters will always cheat. They will not stop because they have suddenly grown a conscience.
Let's talk stats now ~ SimGuruKate's twitter poll with just over 2000 voters reflects how much this change has hurt the majority of the gallery. With 35% in the neutral/no change category we do not look at them as they statistically speaking have no sway or buy in on either side. So, now compare the 49% seeing drastically low to sadly no downloads compared to the 15% who have seen higher downloads. Those stats do not make me happy about this new gallery change at all. :( More work and thought I hope will go into this gallery overhaul in the weeks to come. That is really the only thing keeping me going on in the gallery right now. The knowledge that they are not done with the overhaul and therefore hopefully better things are ahead.
Side note ~ I have noticed that the randomization on the popular now page is occurring occasionally but I personally think they could get that random algorithm working better as well.
Thanks for reading and respecting this thread :)
