Well, for one, let's say I create an object and 400 people download it. Then I update the object with new features using "Reset Update Date", and 200 users who downloaded the first version download the new version, and 200 new users download the object. Is the new download count only 600? Or is it 800, as I think it should be, when using "Reset Update Date" for large updates?

Great!! Now if you could only do something about the rating system. It's nice for friends to encourage each other, but giving an 8 rating to a skin that really should be a 4 is only hurting the author. As I'm sure your aware, you have a group of people all giving each other high ratings!

about the downloads - i agree with brazen's idea too, but i also think that they should show both unique downloads and total downloads in the information of the skin... although i think that a repeated download by the same user for the same skin should not be counted in any downloads but a download by the same person for an updated skin should be included in the total downloads... hopefully this wasn't too horribly written to understand

about the ratings system - they had a solution (well kind of) for that a while back (a month or two) where they could detect if people were going around giving a favored author 10's (or other high ratings) on everything or 1's (or other low ratings) to a disliked author... thats they best they can do so far as it is almost impossible to make a perfect rating system to the public (instead of just members)

We have a ratings system solution just have to implement it.

But yea, it's always been tough because while I can honestly say that when it comes to skins and themes, WinCustomize is generally the top site for a lot of different types in # of different users, it's always been at a disadvantage because our downloads have reflected unique downloads.

There are sites whose download counts are inflated by a factor of 10X or more (where downloading a skin will result in the download count jumping by hundreds sometimes). 

But clearly with so many people concerned about downloads, it would be easy for a site to take advantage of that fact by puffing up their DL stats.

you see, people, being as egotistical as they are, would constantly update tiny things in order to make the top 10 or make themselves feel better. However pathetic that sounds, it will happen and it will annoy me

Updates are updates, unique downloads should still be unique downloads whether before or after the update... the idea of an "update download" sounds fine - just so long as the current unique download remains the official representation

You definitely shouldn't be reset to 0 if you make an update. Especially updates where you click "reset update date"... using that checkbox usually indicates that your changes are big enough to honestly warrant being re-shown as an object back at the top of the date-descending list. It is very annoying, indeed, to see constant updates and small tweaks just so people can see their objects be at the top of the list again. But when I think of things like DXScript-ed objects (that sometimes take me considerable time to create), if I make MAJOR enough changes or fixes to it, I want people to see it again at the top of the date-descended list so those who got the first version and liked it will be sure to see that I made a major change or fix to it, and will redownload it. (As a rule, one should only use the "Reset Update Date" feature if there truly were major enough changes or fixes to the object/skin).

It would be very helpful to see the number of people who have re-downloaded objects in some way - even if it's not a part of the total downloads, to have it broken out seperately would be cool so you can tell which objects (or skins) have more long-term users. Or even better, a list of previous versions and the number of downloads per version of the object/skin:

SKIN/OBJECT NAME
Update 1 - Jun 18, 2003 (527 Unique Downloads)
Update 2 - Sep 4, 2003 (732 Unique Downloads, 202 of whom Downloaded Previous Updates)
Update 3 - Jan 23, 2004 (12 Unique Downloads, 7 of whom Downloaded Previous Updates)

This is great information for both the author AND for potential downloaders alike I think

Hmmm I think brazen weep hit on the solution.

Depends on what kind of download database was used of course.

I think it might be fun if we were able to see which countries the people who download our work are from, like in percentage or something. Say I've had 3.241 downloads and 1.296 of those came from Spain. That's 40%, then I could start wondering why my work is so popular in Spain. This could exceed to other variables like type of browser, region, gender, or even age if a database could do that, and we were to give that input, we'd have to change our account for that I guess. It's another way of getting to know the community without asking everyone ourselves. Just a thought.

I agree it would be a bit spooky seeing exactly who downloaded your skin. But I think it would be interesting to see for example how many people in a user ID range have downloaded it. Like how many people with 1-100 User ID downloaded something compared to those with an User ID over 500 thousand. Of course there are an endless number of ranges you could use, but it might give the author a better idea of who is using his work.

Accurate counts are one thing but try to get a skin approved is another...I've had a LogOn pending since January 7th and it's still waiting for approval. I have e-mailed two Moderators and the last time the Web Administrator, they don't even answer your e-mails. The site is starting to reflect poor service. Renewing my subscription when it runs out will depend on the service.

The dl count is fine the way it is.
.limiting the number of times you can update something or resetting the count to 0 is not a good idea.My first skin has been updated 3 times already(the reasons should be obvious,hehe,it was a mess),that would mean I couldnt add toolbar icons or animations or any other improvements they come up with.

.registered and unregistered dl count might be interesting tho.

.would make more sense to me if the ratings got reset after a major update(tho this is easily abused)I have a skin in the top 150 that still has a 6 because initial reception was poor and updates had little effect on the rating.(people dont re-rate much)

I agree with leaving the download count the way it is - but perhapse giving the author such information as brazen has said. And I think the person who mentioned resetting teh download to zero meant only that the 'updated count' should be reset to zero - not the entire thing.

which ever way it goes, I still believe the current way of counting is the best way and should be included as the default sorting/featuring method... if other counts are included to either users or authors then that would be nice too I suppose.

Thats why I now make my wall previews 800x600 and put the larger resolutions in the zip.