Weak charts make weak points

aforsy

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Saturday December 22, 2012 · 7:14 AM PST

2012/12/22 · 07:14

no image description available — Nice data, but a bad graph X-(

Nice data, but a bad graph X-(

This may be just an aside, but can everyone freaking stop starting the y-axis of their graph at anything other than zero, please?
It is understandable to want to balance the visual elements of the graph the way one would balance the visual elements of a picture. And so ppl remove the white space that would exist, for example, below the line for Northeast in the graph at the beginning of the post. But that white space is there for a damn good reason, and without it, one gets a distorted impression of the data being displayed. Without that white space in the above graph, the difference between the Northeast and the South looks, on a cursory visual inspection (which, btw, is how most ppl read graphs), like a factor of four or five, but is in fact just a factor of 1.7ish.
Not displaying graphs properly almost always has the effect of exaggerating the contrast between classes of data. If someone wants to quarrel with your point, they wont be convinced at all by your shoddy chart, b/c they'll take the time to actually look at the numbers and they'll feel the skewed nature of the damn thing.
So fuckin' do yer charts right, ya'll

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STFU u are concern trolling

1 vote

Whatever nobody thinks this is important

1 vote

K, yeah, I see your point

1 vote

Dude, I've been secretly angry about this so thanks

6 votes

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