# cxli233/FriendsDontLetFriends

Friends don't let friends make certain types of data visualization - What are they and why are they bad.

Repository: https://github.com/cxli233/FriendsDontLetFriends
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/friendsdontletfriends
Language: R
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: data-visualization, r
Last push: 2025-09-03T15:32:50+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 41/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 40, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 1562, "days_push": 364, "days_rel": 631, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 7098, forks 286 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:55.897243+00:00)

## What it is
An opinionated educational essay and tutorial collection about common mistakes in data visualization, explaining what chart types and practices to avoid and why. It includes R Markdown scripts that generate all example graphics, runnable in R/RStudio.

## Use cases
- learn why pie charts and bar plots for mean separation are bad
- teach a data visualization course or workshop
- review my figures before publishing a paper
- find better alternatives to misleading chart types
- learn heatmap and color scale best practices
- get reproducible R examples of good vs bad plots

## When to choose
- you want an accessible, example-driven guide to visualization pitfalls
- you work in R and want runnable code demonstrating good practices
- you are teaching or mentoring others on making honest, readable charts

## When to avoid
- you need a plotting library or software tool rather than educational material
- you need a neutral, comprehensive reference rather than an opinionated essay
- you do not use R and only want the prose without the code examples

## Facets
- artifact type: learning-resource
- maturity: active
- function: data-visualization, charts
- domain: data-visualization, data-science, education
- platform: cross-platform, python
- tags: r, ggplot2, best-practices, tutorial, opinionated-guide, data-literacy

## Member repositories
- cxli233/FriendsDontLetFriends (main) score 41

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:55.897243+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:40:09.195578+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/cxli233/FriendsDontLetFriends (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:55.897243+00:00, sha 4965a5b34cb7)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.