diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md index 8f798ba..5c3fa23 100644 --- a/CLAUDE.md +++ b/CLAUDE.md @@ -14,6 +14,11 @@ Each sin page follows one shape: **poke → proof → why → the fix → receip ## Voice & content conventions +- **The title names the problem plainly; the poke carries the voice.** A title + is a label someone scans in the gallery and recognizes in a link — write + "Truncated Y-Axis on a Bar Chart," not "The Truncated Temptation." Use the + field's standard term for the sin where one exists. Save the wit for the poke; + that's what it's for. - **The poke names the general sin, never the sample's specifics.** A visitor didn't "start the axis at 90" — they mis-set the baseline. Write "Your bars don't start at zero…", not the numbers from our example data. diff --git a/docs/content-backlog.md b/docs/content-backlog.md index 335ee63..8aaadfe 100644 --- a/docs/content-backlog.md +++ b/docs/content-backlog.md @@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ sits on. The backlog is ordered to bring them all in. ## Ranked backlog -### 1. The Cherry-Picked Window — *Deceptive Framing*, severity 5 +### 1. A Cherry-Picked Time Range — *Deceptive Framing*, severity 5 **Poke:** "You started the clock exactly where the story got good." @@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ we can build. **Citations:** `huff` (the original con), `callingbullshit`, `howchartslie`, `junkcharts`. -### 2. Bars That Hide the Distribution — *Hiding the Data*, severity 4 +### 2. Group Averages Shown Without the Distribution — *Hiding the Data*, severity 4 **Poke:** "Four bars, four averages, and no idea whether the difference is real." @@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ observations, means still marked. **Citations:** `wilke`, `healy`, `schwabish`, `datatoviz`. -### 3. The Inflated Bubble — *Perceptual Traps*, severity 4 +### 3. Bubbles Sized by Radius Instead of Area — *Perceptual Traps*, severity 4 **Poke:** "You doubled the number and quadrupled the ink." @@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ position does the work. **Citations:** `munzner`, `clevelandmcgill`, `tufte`, `howchartslie`. -### 4. Alphabetical Is Not a Ranking — *Sloppy Craft*, severity 2 +### 4. Categories Sorted Alphabetically Instead of by Value — *Sloppy Craft*, severity 2 **Poke:** "Your categories are sorted by name. Nobody wants to know which region starts with A." @@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ sorted by value. **Citations:** `schwabish`, `ftvisvocab`, `swd`, `fewpies`. -### 5. Everything Above the Bottom Floats — *Perceptual Traps*, severity 3 +### 5. Stacked Segments Without a Shared Baseline — *Perceptual Traps*, severity 3 **Poke:** "Only the bottom band of a stacked chart has a straight edge to measure against. The rest are guesses." @@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ out to its own zero baseline), totals preserved. **Citations:** `datawrapper`, `wilke`, `munzner`, `ftvisvocab`. -### 6. The Reversed Axis — *Misleading Scales*, severity 5 +### 6. An Inverted Y-Axis — *Misleading Scales*, severity 5 **Poke:** "Down means up. You flipped the axis and the trend flipped with it." @@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ support overlaps almost entirely with sins we've already published. **Citations:** `callingbullshit`, `howchartslie`, `junkcharts`. -### 7. Squashed and Stretched — *Misleading Scales*, severity 3 +### 7. Aspect Ratio That Exaggerates a Trend — *Misleading Scales*, severity 3 **Poke:** "Same data, twice as tall. Aspect ratio is not a styling choice." @@ -158,6 +158,11 @@ rediscovering them: ## Conventions reminder -Anything picked up from this list still follows `CLAUDE.md`: the poke names the -general sin and never our sample's numbers, both charts share one dataset, and -the fixed chart obeys every rule the site preaches. +Anything picked up from this list still follows `CLAUDE.md`: the title names the +problem plainly and leaves the wit to the poke, the poke names the general sin +and never our sample's numbers, both charts share one dataset, and the fixed +chart obeys every rule the site preaches. + +The headings above are working titles written to that rule — they say what the +sin *is*, so they can be taken as-is or rephrased without having to first decode +a pun. diff --git a/src/content/sins/dual-axis-deception.md b/src/content/sins/dual-axis-deception.md index faa7e9c..8564add 100644 --- a/src/content/sins/dual-axis-deception.md +++ b/src/content/sins/dual-axis-deception.md @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ --- -title: "The Dual-Axis Deception" +title: "Two Y-Axes Scaled to Look Correlated" summary: "Two unrelated series on two independent axes, engineered to look correlated." poke: "Two y-axes, scaled until the lines overlap — and suddenly anything 'causes' anything." category: "False Relationships" diff --git a/src/content/sins/pie-chart-overload.md b/src/content/sins/pie-chart-overload.md index 971c79e..f7b3f4a 100644 --- a/src/content/sins/pie-chart-overload.md +++ b/src/content/sins/pie-chart-overload.md @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ --- -title: "Pie Chart Overload" +title: "Too Many Slices in a Pie Chart" summary: "Eight near-identical slices no human eye can rank. A bar chart was right there." poke: "More slices than anyone can rank by eye. A bar chart was right there." category: "Chart-Type Abuse" diff --git a/src/content/sins/truncated-y-axis.md b/src/content/sins/truncated-y-axis.md index 271610f..0768d09 100644 --- a/src/content/sins/truncated-y-axis.md +++ b/src/content/sins/truncated-y-axis.md @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ --- -title: "The Truncated Y-Axis" +title: "Truncated Y-Axis on a Bar Chart" summary: "Chopping the baseline off a bar chart to make small differences look enormous." poke: "Your bars don't start at zero. That's not a bar chart — it's a magic trick." category: "Misleading Scales"