Spyke
lemmy.dbzer0.com

I hate the fact that the vertical axis starts at 7 million, making the drop seem deceptively large

115
Ekkyreply
sopuli.xyz

Seems fine to me, the axes are easy to understand and there would be a lot of unnecessary whitespace otherwise. Though, it does require some reading comprehension, and that one actually looks at it and not just skims over.

27

I agree that this way of displaying the data is appropriate, but it would be nice to have a very visible indicator of this. Some kind of highlighted "fold" line or something at the very bottom of the chart, maybe. If I can deduce the units from context, and the trend is more interesting than absolute numbers, then I'm not going to look at the axes most of the time

21
lemmy.world

This reading comprehension joke it overused and it doesn't even make sense here. It's well-known that you need at least one of those little zigzag indicators when the graph doesn't start at 0 in most cases to avoid people misinterpreting the graph and to make it much more visually clear.

19
Ekkyreply
sopuli.xyz

I was of the impression that reading a graph also required understanding of regular writing/reading, but I'm no native speaker, so I'll gladly stand corrected.

I'm not sure what you mean by "one of those little zigzag indicators", do you perhaps mean leap/break in data denoted by the "Squiggle"? I don't think any data below 7m is included in this graph, so, if I understand you correctly, then that wouldn't be a proper use of said squiggle.

4

Yes, I mean an axis break to denote that part of the axis has been omitted. Using it to show a gap between 0 and the lowest included data in the dataset is very common and is a proper use even according to your own source:

A zigzag on the line of the x- or y-axis in a line or a bar graph indicating that the data being displayed does not include all of the values that exist on the number line being used

Beginning the Y axis at 0 and using an axis break to go from there to 7 million allows you to see the same amount of detail as you can in the OP, while visually signalling to the reader that the scale on that axis does not show a full 0 to 10 million range. This increases the chance that they'll read the graph correctly. You can justifiably blame someone for reading it wrong, but the point of a graph is to communicate, so minimizing the chance for misinterpretation is a good idea.

7
lemmy.world

Using compressed axes to display data was literally "How to identify misleading statistics 101" in middle school for us....

It seems fine to you but for the majority of people it's misleading most people look at the lines and the relative distance between them to make judgment calls. Not literally the entire point of graphs, to visually display information.

This is a well-known effect and is taught in pretty much every major curriculum.

-1
Ekkyreply
sopuli.xyz

And the above was literally how I was thought to represent data in university. Maximize the areas of interest, make sure to properly label your axes (lest they become misleading), and remember to trim empty space where relevant.

But it appears that proper graphs for science and engineering reports may not be used for representing data to the common man, as it must be assumed that, even for the most simple of graphs, the common man will only look at the funny line, but not the graph itself.

5

Yep. You essentially summed up my point.

There's a difference between data display for academia and data display for the general public.

The general public is generally not well educated on understanding the data that's presented to them. Big change in line up or down regardless of scale means big change. It could be from 100 to 100.8, but if the scale is zoomed in then that could be presented as a +80% change.

And often is and sometimes with the axes removed and shown on the news specifically to be manipulative.

I really don't understand why I'm being downvoted above.... This was literally part of my grade school education on identifying and avoiding misinformation. And later on, around how the general public understands data visualizations. They are largely understood at a glance and taken at face value without reading the axes.

This is a easy way to push misinformation. Not by actually pushing real misinformation but by taking advantage of the general public's tendency to not read it carefully.

Which is manipulative. Which is why it's taught in some places as part of the standard educational curriculum...

2
Ledivinreply
lemmy.world

A 20% drop in use on American Thanksgiving doesn't seem even remotely outlandish to me

73

I'm pretty sure ThePicardManuever posts 9 million times a day.

18
Zorquereply
lemmy.world

Well, yeah. Posters actually put in effort. Commenters are lazy people who just shit out their terrible opinions.

5
startrek.website

Commenters are the worst.

Especially the ones that have custom profiles with names and shit.

Like Bro you aren't fooling anyone, we all know you aren't really a squid that flies.

7
slrpnk.net

I dunno if people would post so much for upvotes alone. Comments are nice, and I get friendly ones pretty frequently on my posts, and try to leave just as many on others posts :)

Edit: wait, I think I just wooshed myself

3

It was mostly curmudgeonly humor, but really it does take less effort in general to make comments than it does to make posts. So it would make sense that it would see less of a dip when people are busy. It's easy to just jump on and make a few comments or participate in a discussion than to put the effort into making a post of some kind.

It really depends on the kind of person, though. I'd imagine some people find it easier to provide content than to comment on it or respond to others doing so.

1
Psythikreply
lemmy.world

For sure; I sure wasn't on my phone at all that day, and I'm usually on Lemmy daily. Too busy cooking and mingling with family.

4

Likewise. The following day as well for me. Oh, and the day after that too. I didn't return to my regular routine until today.

2
Revonultreply
lemmy.world

It's Thanksgiving. Either a massive drop in posters due to travel or family or whoever was sending the data was similarly out.

14

I had definitely noticed things were more quiet than usual on English Lemmy, so I figured it was just the Americans being busy with that.

7
lemmy.pierre-couy.fr

Something's odd with the numbers from fediverse observer. Numbers shown in monthly graphs should be about 30 times higher than numbers shown in daily graphs, but they are about the same

15

I always assumed its daily reporting of monthly active users. the nodeinfo format that is used for reporting the data does not show daily active users iirc (it is seemingly capable of reporting weekly users).

3

It's Thanksgiving. A lot of people visiting with friends/family. Idk how to access the numbers but I'd imagine last year was about the same

15
lemmy.world

We were busy those nights, and if you didn't get the memo it's best to stop asking questions while you still can.

13
pseudoreply
jlai.lu

I mean, I always thought of OP as someone in the Lemmy's loop. I guess it doesn't know everything...

3
Zangoosereply
lemmy.world

This could actually make sense if those bot posts that mirror reddit subs are included in this number since those don't really get any comments

1
[deleted]reply
lemmy.world

I am thinking it is probably comments and not posts as well.

5
pruwybenreply
discuss.tchncs.de

There's a separate graph on that page for comments, which are up around 17 million.

4
[deleted]reply
lemmy.world

10 million comments by 40k or so active daily users seems incredibly high.

4
pruwybenreply
discuss.tchncs.de

This is showing the total number of posts, not just new ones. The title is really misleading...

6

Is it? That would make more sense. And then, the number of posts would go down if a very large instance would not report for a day (huge instance in this case, we are talking an instance with 2 millions posts out of 9)?

5
NOT_RICKreply
lemmy.world

Assuming it’s not a bug, maybe Americans busy with Thanksgiving? I know I was on less as a result

14

I’m thinking that, a lot of users were hanging out with relatives and traveling.

4

Turkey day travel and spending time with family by prolific posters is likely.

1
lemm.ee

Ik Lemmy is a small social media,is this why I feel like Lemmy is dead.

4
islesreply
lemmy.world

We've been conditioned by endless scrolls, for sure.

9
cog
sopuli.xyz

People preparing xmas gifts and planning for holidays?

4
Andyreply
slrpnk.net

That looks much more like a data artifact than an accurate representation of behavior.

I think that the trajectory of the three low dots matches the overall slope very closely in a way that looks far more like a flat subtraction of all three. If it was behavioral, I think you'd see the behavior come and go over the course of several days.

6

You are right, that is quite a dramatic drop and rise.

2