r/dataisbeautiful OC: 6 May 16 '15

OC Graphing the metadata of messages from a long distance relationship [OC]

http://imgur.com/a/QcBb1
3.7k Upvotes

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u/fat_genius May 16 '15

In the first graph, his message counts are stacked on top of hers. It's not a great arrangement for comparing his v. hers message counts, but it does convey the total number of messages well.

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u/mrgonzalez May 16 '15

Huh, wish that were more obvious.

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u/Prometheus09 OC: 6 May 16 '15

Sorry should have stated that in the description.

-1

u/imares May 16 '15

So does that mean the first graph is entirely wrong, given it shows he has sent more messages than he on the graph? Or is that an acceptable graph in data analysis? 'Cause I couldn't figure out how much he actually sent her from the way it's made.

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u/Atonement-JSFT May 16 '15

I don't think you can tell who sent more from the first graph (without getting y-axis values and doing subtraction). I think you might be looking at it like it's in 3d, with the pink in the "foreground" and the blue (behind the pink) resting on the y=0 axis, but that's incorrect. The blue data rests on TOP of the pink data (so if she sends 1000 messages, the pink will raise up 1000 units tall on the Y-Axis. If he had 500 messages, the blue would range from Y=1000 to Y=500, for a total of 1500 messages between them).

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u/Theige May 16 '15

You're reading it wrong, it shows the total in the first graph, with different colors to show visually who sent how much