TGPX Question(s)

[Greenguy]

JustRobert & I have been about why TGPX does some stuff since Day 1. We've been in the "Whatever" status until recently because, with me moving LOR to TGPX, I don't want to "Whatever" this stuff anymore.

The concept of our network is simple in theory: Take 1,000's of galleries (there's 38,000 in there now) & randomly* show them across 65 domains that are 1 page sites & 3 domains that have an index & 55 category pages (so 233 total pages).
*The exception to this is "new" galleries (galleries Approved the day before or Approved & scheduled for that day)

So, we have the order section of the {galleries} coding set like this:
order=date_approved DESC
reorder=RAND()

I'm pretty sure there's no problem with the "new" galleries - we want them to load 1st & they do. It's the "reorder=RAND()" galleries that are really fucking with us. We want these to be truly random, pulling from any & all galleries tagged with that category (as well as randomly pulling from the entire database if the {galleries} category is set to "MIXED"). What we get is basically the same galleries over & over, sometimes on back-to-back days, sometimes every other day, sometimes every 3-4 days.

I've come to the conclusion that we're doing something wrong or we have our settings incorrect, but I just can't figure it out

So, knowing all that, here's a screencap of our General Settings:


Here's the typical {galleries} coding that we use:

{* PULL THE SUBMITTED GALLERIES FROM THE DATABASE *}
{galleries
var=$galleries
type=permanent
format=any
getnew=true
allowused=true
description=false
preview=true
amount=25
previewsize=180x180
category=Erotic
sponsor=any
order=date_approved DESC
reorder=RAND()}
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td>{* DISPLAY ALL OF THE GALLERIES *}
{foreach var=$gallery from=$galleries counter=$counter}</td>

<td><a href="{$gallery.gallery_url|htmlspecialchars}" title="{$gallery.description|htmlspecialchars}"><img src="{$gallery.preview_url|htmlspecialchars}" border="0" alt="{$gallery.description|htmlspecialchars}"></a></td>
<td>{insert counter=$counter location=+5 max=20}</td>

</tr><tr>
<td>{/insert}
{/foreach}</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>

</tr>
</table>

I should mention that ALL galleries are "type=permanent" (we edit the submits by hand). Not sure if that matters.

Does anyone have any ideas? Need more screencaps or access to the admin? Please LMK because this is bugging the living shit out of me