They tried to make a premium version of the site not only adding stuff to it to make the pay subscription appealing, but also crippling the base, free version.
Basically a XBL style approach, what a sin that only MS and Apple, with their brainwashing tools, can get away with such fishy business models!   

Man who mixes up phone with computer is like train without wheels: very soon gets nowhere.

Thank god such business model failed here. Is vgchartz in such a need for money? I also get a 20 second advertisement everytime I open this site.

The site grew very fast and so must have done costs, I wouldn't bash ioi too much, he must find the right balance, but it requires trial and error, sites and user bases are different and it doesn't exist a universal rule, well, actually there is one, companies with monster marketing budgets can push their greed further before suffering drawbacks.

I think the idea probably formed when ioi quit his job at McLaren (the car company... can't recall what he did) and made VGC his primary income.

My favorite comedic actor ever...

Well, that's just brilliant!

And I have to say, the graphs are a lot better than the old one. Easier to use, easier to zoom, easier to see trends.  Overall, just lovely, and a sign of better things to come.

How about adding the Tool link to gamrconnect, just seems so inconvient to have to go to the front page to access it when your making a graph for a thread.

It's the same for the Charts menu too. This would be low priority though I'm guessing, then again easy to implrement.

Bit late but: hey ! :)