Not the same thing at all. You're losing the relative scale, and the benefit in this case is minor. If you're trying to emphasize near-term changes in a range w

Not the same thing at all. You're losing the relative scale, and the benefit in this case is minor. If you're trying to emphasize near-term changes in a range with a very high base (e.g. stock fluctuations) this might be justified if you make the broken scale clear, but it's probably better in such a case to make the graph into log change from baseline (which is how, for example, yahoo charts stock prices). In this case, for a very minor space saving and extra work the -- borderline useless -- graph is made misleading.