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Log Scale for Bar Graphs on the Stats page


Bush_Doc

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Maybe a silly idea but has anyone considered providing an option to convert the scales on the bar graphs from linear to log (base 10) scale.

For most cachers the number of traditional caches found typically far outnumber all other cache types so that on a linear scale the bars for the other

cache types barely show up on the graph. Plotted using a log scale you might allow you to see some of the bars. Just an idea.

 

Bushman002

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:blink:

 

What would you plot for the cache types I have zero finds? (hint: log(0)=-∞)

 

Sure log scale has the effect of squeezing large numbers together that they don't overpower the smaller numbers. If you were plotting something that had fractions (as opposed to whole number cache counts), it would also squeeze very small fractions together so that common fractions like ½ or ¼ get more room on the plot. Log scale makes sense if you are looking a ratios and you might have some very large or very small ratios but are mostly interested in the ratios closer to 1. For example, you might plot the ratio of finds for each type relative to the number of multi-cache finds. But most people are probably more interested in the actual number of each cache and not that they found twice as many multi-caches as EarthCaches and 10 times a many traditionals as multi-caches.

 

What is probably a better and more intuitive solution is to use a broken bar for tratiditional caches to indicate that they don't fit on the same linear scale as the other types. Then you can spread out the other kinds of caches to see more detail, with the traditional cache bar showing a break to indicate that it is much larger.

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