Ok, I just found the methodology link in the giant footer and I've been looking for something like it for a while. Call me stupid or whatever if you like. It's an ok link, but I really think you should expand it to go into more depth and include more of what we've been discussing in this thread. Assume a basic understanding of statistics, but include all of the relevant details about sampling methods. Then you can link to a separate FAQ page and probably include a link to this editorial or something similar http://www.vgchartz.com/article/82746/editorial-why-it-is-so-easy-to-blame-vgchartz/ intended for some of the stupider questions.

I really think including the Methodology page more prominently in the site design would not be overkill and would help a lot, since it's an important element of the site. I would actually include it somewhere in the header, but simply bolding the link at the bottom of the charts would make it more noticeable.

Just let it go already. You should just assume the numbers aren't %100 accurate,end of story. No tracking are rating service is %100 accurate/perfect. ioi can run this site however he wants. He's not obligated to explain anything 2 you. If your such an expert and think you can do a better job of tracking numbers,then why not come up with your own website. You should just be thankful this is a free service. If you have vgchartz pro and your paying for these numbers,then all of your points and questions are %100 valid. These numbers aren't misleading,because %99 of people are smart enough to know there not %100 accurate. There's no possible way they can be,unless you have a person tracking every sale,in every store in the world. 

And years ago a developer (forgot which one) said that people shouldn't take VGC seriously because VGC numbers of their games were way off. I want to say it was Factor 5/Free Radical or something. That was the begining of when I started to stop taking SW sales to mean anything.

You cannot use vgchartz as a source for arguments on neogaf. If you make a thread using vgchartz as a source you get banned.

Its got nothing to do with the numbers. Vgchartz has been banned on GAF since its inception. This is because of a fallout between ioi and GAF.

Please stop making as if this has something to do with the numbers...

I'm behind ioi on this one.

The only thing that Vgchartz perhaps does wrong is not make it absolutely clear what the numbers really represent. Users need to find certain info pages to get this detail. But really the site creators probably didnt want to clutter the weekly sales charts with messages and disclaimers etc. when all that info is in the about us page and the methodology page. There has also been numerous amounts of posts from ioi over the years giving explanations.

For me personally i always had an idea of what Vgchartz was trying to achieve with the site. Not once did i treat the numbers as absolute fact. And over the years i became to understand this more clearly.

Thats why even when the numbers are way off...i don't really see that as a major issue anymore.

Well, he did get banned from neogaf for a good reason. And the numbers provided by VGChartz don't do anything to help it's credibility over there. We see that everytime there's an NPD topic.

Also, next time someone tells me that official numbers are shipped and not sold and we should therefore use vgchartz's numbers instead, I'll post this:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3963064&postcount=53

I might be misremembering because it has been years, but didn't ioi start out posting his estimates on GAF before making VGC?  It definitely has to do with the numbers.

It does seem like certainty in the numbers has decayed over the years.  4-5 years ago the official line seemed to always be that the numbers were within 10% of NPD and the like.

Yes he did get banned from GAF. However what you said initially was incorrect...saying that the reason why GAF banned any mention of VGC was because its numbers wernt correct. Thats not really true. Its because ioi is the site founder. Like ioi said if Vgc popped up out of the blue, i doubt it would be completely banned from GAF. It would be accepted for what it is.  GAF and ioi did have some sort of falling out to the point where it became personal. That is why, Vgc is banned from GAF. It doesnt really matter if our numbers were more correct...it would still be banned from GAF.

Also when you say "the numbers provided by Vgcharts dont do anything to help its credibility over there" then i think you also kinda miss the point of what vgchartz is. You would also see why its completely irrational for Vgc to be banned entirely from another site.