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How You can Help Yourself to Taste Success!

Well, that is disappointing. I had hoped that there would have been more response to help Red (to help everyone else).
There have been over 100 viewings of this discussion since my previous post and only 2 replies!

I am sure that he is not expecting lots of clearly thought out presentations but even a few ideas or agreement with what is currently produced would be helpful. What is it that you would like to see? The current indication of fever pitch excitement might make him give up and save his effort.

PLEASE spend a moment and tell him what you would like to see (or nothing at all). He is already experimenting with possible layouts and looking to see what else can be displayed in the clearest way. Encouragement would go a long way to make it all worthwhile. Let's see if we can get (at least) a dozen comments before the week-end. [Unlike Maggie Smith, I assume that you do all know what a week-end is!]
 
Bryman said:
PLEASE spend a moment and tell him what you would like to see (or nothing at all).
Click to expand...
I'm always interested to read Red's weekly posts but have to confess I rarely look at the graphs as I generally feel the text gives me a good enough picture of what's been happening. So I'm not sure I really feel qualified to comment on the ins and outs of the presentation, but when I do look at the graph it's always seemed OK to me. However, there is a lot going on in a small space so maybe 3 separate graphs would work better?
 
Bryman said:
PLEASE spend a moment and tell him what you would like to see (or nothing at all).
Click to expand...

I do appreciate all the effort that Red puts in and when I see his graph appear in the postings that is my cue to head over to the Lost Cousins site to see if I have any matches. As Pauline has said maybe 3 seperate graphs would be better.
 
Hi Everyone!

Here's a weekly update on how well people have been doing over at LostCousins.
  • 89 new members joined the LostCousins site
  • 2,057 new entries have been added and
  • 116 relatives have been matched.

New members and new entries going up which is always a good thing. The more people we talk to about Lost Cousins, and the more people that join will benefit us all in the long run.

Thanks Bryman for starting a conversation on the graphs, everyone please keep the comments coming so that we can end up with graphs which are useful and make sense. I've tried the 3 graphs this week for people to comment on.

Here's a graph showing the activity over at the Lost Cousins site.
graph01.PNG
 
Red Dragon said:
I've tried the 3 graphs this week for people to comment on.
Click to expand...
I did find it easier to read with 3 separate graphs, although I guess it does make it slightly harder to directly compare the different variables. However, the middle graph seems to relate to relate to a completely different time period, although comparing it with previous charts I wonder if it has the wrong dates rather than wrong data.
 
Still not many suggestions/comments being put forward and now there are nearly 300 views since the request was made a week ago! Is nearly everyone that has read these posts frightened of speaking out? Red really wants to hear from 'the masses' and not just the regulars. Even a 'Don't care' vote is a valid comment and would help him to decide what is best to do.

Pauline said:
I did find it easier to read with 3 separate graphs, although I guess it does make it slightly harder to directly compare the different variables.
Click to expand...

That is why I suggested that the 3 graphs should be rotated through 90 degrees so that all points for a given date would be across the same horizontal line while still making it easier to read any text, like date or values etc.

Pauline said:
However, the middle graph seems to relate to relate to a completely different time period, although comparing it with previous charts I wonder if it has the wrong dates rather than wrong data.
Click to expand...

There are also two points mis-plotted for 30/Jan/2015 on the two outside graphs but I think we should let Red settle down into a new way of working without too much pressure from the rest of us. It's just a pity that he has so little to go on.
 
Bryman said:
There are also two points mis-plotted for 30/Jan/2015 on the two outside graphs but I think we should let Red settle down into a new way of working without too much pressure from the rest of us
Click to expand...
Of course - it wasn't intended as pressure. I was thinking more that if I didn't mention it, it might seem I hadn't been interested enough to give the new format more than just a quick glance. :)
 
IMHO the lack of clarity on the original format is due to having a long period over which the graph is trying to show every detail. Would it be better to show detail for the last say 2 months, as the 3-graph image tries to do, and then show a long term summary without all the value labels? HTH
 
I am sorry Pauline if you thought that I was criticising you. Not at all. I was just worried that some others might 'jump on the band wagon' and give Red a hard time when he is only trying to help. If only a couple of dozen other forum members would express their views like you have.

Ideally, using graphs should enable viewers to get most of the information from just a quick glance. That is the point.
 
Much easier to read as three graphs but long term perhaps some explanation of the highs ( and lows) as a footnote. I also like the idea of an "average" as a dotted line superimposed as well so that newcomers can see the general trend. When presenting stats to the uninitiated I have a preference for bar graphs but that's just my experience.
 
Bryman said:
Is nearly everyone that has read these posts frightened of speaking out?
Click to expand...
No! Some of us are far away from home and decent computers - and no, I am not in Portugal!
I prefer the 3 graphs. I can see the values better than on one graph.
I do not think you need to put the bit at the side of each graph saying what it is as the title tells you that.
That will give more room to each graph.
Good work Red for doing the graphs and to Bryman for getting us to comment.
 
Bryman said:
Ideally, using graphs should enable viewers to get most of the information from just a quick glance. That is the point.
Click to expand...

Yes, just looking at the figures alone doesn't mean much to me without a quick look at the graph/s to compare with previous history.
 
I like the separate graphs, and have a few comments to try and improve them further.
  1. The legend isn't needed as it doesn't add any information - the title of each graph says the same.
  2. To make it easier for international readers, the dates should be like 23 Mar 2015, not 23/03/2015.
  3. I'd like the date range to be exactly the same for all 3 graphs.
  4. Roughly 3 months' worth of data seems a bit short: I suggest trying 6 months or even 12 months.
 
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