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This article is an example of how not to visualize data. The charts are not helpful in any way.

DavidSJ 15y ago
Indeed. A single chart with time on the horizontal axis, downloads on the vertical axis, and one line per operating system would have been far more comprehensible. Instead we get time inverted, bar graphs, and no way to visually compare the operating systems.
cavilling_elite 15y ago
It also isn't very good to have an "other" category of ~60M averaged when your three "main" are ~60M, ~4M and ~3M. Terrible article.
- thenextcorner 15y ago
  Apparently, the unknown represent the auto updates right through the application itself, but sourced from SF https://twitter.com/#!/rbowen/status/137305778875936771 https://twitter.com/#!/rbowen/status/137305778875936771
warpdude 15y ago
God, yes. It frustrated me so much that I ended up just copying the data into JS arrays and generating my own charts using the Google Visualization API. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25782/sourceforge.html http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25782/sourceforge.html Pretty eye-opening. What's clear is that the 'Other' category brings so much uncertainty to the data that it renders the data virtually useless.
- thenextcorner 15y ago
  That's an awesome chart to visualize
- bradleyland 15y ago
  I found stacked area to work really well: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6353242/hn/sourceforge-area-normalized.html http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6353242/hn/sourceforge-area-normaliz... You can get a real sense for how large the 'other' datapoint is by looking at non-normalized view as well: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6353242/hn/sourceforge-area.html http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6353242/hn/sourceforge-area.html
- bradleyland 15y ago
  Apparently much of the "other" data are non-browser tools. E.g., curl and wget. https://twitter.com/#!/rbowen/status/137305778875936771 https://twitter.com/#!/rbowen/status/137305778875936771
- thenextcorner 15y ago
  Follow up conversation at: http://www.bradlanders.com/2011/11/17/visualizing-sourceforge-data/ http://www.bradlanders.com/2011/11/17/visualizing-sourceforg...
mappu 15y ago
Rather. It took me a while to figure out the dates were MM/DD/YY. Even then, why is the day included? Are these per-day, and if so, why are they making sweeping generalisations about all of April? If they're just point markers why aren't they in line, and why are the bars separated? It's great they managed to provide the full stats - in a completely uncopyable format. Let me break out tessaract. http://i.imgur.com/VDtUp.png http://i.imgur.com/VDtUp.png http://i.imgur.com/nuKxl.png http://i.imgur.com/nuKxl.png for (only marginally) more helpful visualisations EDIT: warpdude's ones four hours ago and two comments down look nicer

Indeed. A single chart with time on the horizontal axis, downloads on the vertical axis, and one line per operating system would have been far more comprehensible. Instead we get time inverted, bar graphs, and no way to visually compare the operating systems.

cavilling_elite 15y ago

It also isn't very good to have an "other" category of ~60M averaged when your three "main" are ~60M, ~4M and ~3M. Terrible article.

thenextcorner 15y ago
Apparently, the unknown represent the auto updates right through the application itself, but sourced from SF https://twitter.com/#!/rbowen/status/137305778875936771 https://twitter.com/#!/rbowen/status/137305778875936771

warpdude 15y ago

God, yes. It frustrated me so much that I ended up just copying the data into JS arrays and generating my own charts using the Google Visualization API. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25782/sourceforge.html http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25782/sourceforge.html Pretty eye-opening. What's clear is that the 'Other' category brings so much uncertainty to the data that it renders the data virtually useless.

thenextcorner 15y ago
That's an awesome chart to visualize
bradleyland 15y ago
I found stacked area to work really well: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6353242/hn/sourceforge-area-normalized.html http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6353242/hn/sourceforge-area-normaliz... You can get a real sense for how large the 'other' datapoint is by looking at non-normalized view as well: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6353242/hn/sourceforge-area.html http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6353242/hn/sourceforge-area.html
bradleyland 15y ago
Apparently much of the "other" data are non-browser tools. E.g., curl and wget. https://twitter.com/#!/rbowen/status/137305778875936771 https://twitter.com/#!/rbowen/status/137305778875936771
thenextcorner 15y ago
Follow up conversation at: http://www.bradlanders.com/2011/11/17/visualizing-sourceforge-data/ http://www.bradlanders.com/2011/11/17/visualizing-sourceforg...

mappu 15y ago

Rather. It took me a while to figure out the dates were MM/DD/YY. Even then, why is the day included? Are these per-day, and if so, why are they making sweeping generalisations about all of April? If they're just point markers why aren't they in line, and why are the bars separated? It's great they managed to provide the full stats - in a completely uncopyable format. Let me break out tessaract. http://i.imgur.com/VDtUp.png http://i.imgur.com/VDtUp.png http://i.imgur.com/nuKxl.png http://i.imgur.com/nuKxl.png for (only marginally) more helpful visualisations EDIT: warpdude's ones four hours ago and two comments down look nicer