Yeah when I showed the cop the graph of my speed before getting in my car to be 67000mph (speed of the earth around the sun) to 67080mphwhen I was driving it he couldn't see the difference so I didn't get the ticket.

Or sometimes choosing a common-sense reference makes sense.

Which isn't to say THIS one does, it doesn't, but the absolutism of "it's nerf or nothing" is a tad extreme.

[–] aasatru@kbin.earth 16 points 5 months ago (5 children)

Well, it does make sense, doesn't it?

What we're interested in is not the number of users, but the trends: whether the number is increasing or decreasing over time. Starting the axis at 0 would not be useful in this regard, as the trend would be almost completely obscured.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

For something like that, you need a special graph, and I forget the name because no one uses it.

Y axis is "percent growth" and the X axis isn't at the bottom, it's in the middle.

Like, the only way I can describe it is a line graph because it technically is, but there's some name done it.

Capitalism doesn't like it tho, because there's "red numbers" and red numbers scare investors

[–] aasatru@kbin.earth 1 points 5 months ago

At some point recognisability is also worth something. I can immediately read this graph, I understand it, it's good.

Occasionally it's used in a confusing way where people assume it starts at zero despite it not being the case, and sometimes intentionally so. But that's just the case here.

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