

Infographs are Ruining the Internet - lessallan
http://b.lesseverything.com/2011/2/1/infographs-are-ruining-the-internet

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nollidge
I don't get it. Is a collection of made-up facts supposed to constitute satire
or something?

> Infographs are usually very pretty, but it's really a gimmick, they're not
> useful content, it's link bait to get traffic to a blog.

Why so cynical? God forbid somebody represent data in an aesthetically
pleasing manner. If infographics are a gimmick, then so is anything anybody
ever does to make their creations interesting to read/view/use.

~~~
samdk
The problem is not that infographics are aesthetically pleasing. The term
"infographic" has come to be represented with low-content, high-flashiness
presentations of data. (There are many good graphics that also convey
information. "Infographics" generally do a bad job of the latter.)

Since they're pretty and usually not _completely_ content-less (bad
infographics are a great way to spread very few facts over a very large area),
they often get a lot of hits on social news sites like Reddit, Digg, and even,
sometimes, HN. Because of this, they've become a favorite tool of people
trying to do SEO to take advantage of that traffic.

~~~
tel
My opinion is a bit more dire. Infographics are on a strange side of the line
between statistic and art. While they're clearly meant to be flashy and
emotive, they also tend to quite numbers and display data in a way evocative
of authority. It feels a lot to me like being a brand parasite, or displaying
a police seal in a not-completely-obviously-satirical way and then trying to
cover your steps when the police arrest you for impersonation.

I think overall it's a good thing, really, though. I'm not sure there exists a
strong brand for "sensational but detailed information that you probably
shouldn't trust but instead just think about" but infographics (both the bad
_and_ the good, which are still often very pale demonstrations of interesting
data) are filling that hole. What I hope is that they eventually teach people
to be more skeptical and questioning of information presented to them,
regardless of how statistical it seems.

The unfortunate transitory period is a flock of the confidently misled, I
suppose.

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jokermatt999
Meh. It's satire, and it does have somewhat of a point, but I feel like it's
even more shallow than what it's parodying. It captures the feel of a bad
infographic post well, but it does it to the point where I feel like it
undermines their own purpose.

With apologies to Bill Hicks: Ahh, I see what they're doing there. They're
going for the shallow infographic satirizing shallow infographics market. Big
market there.

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dasil003
Previously ruined: USA Today

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albemuth
I wonder for how long derri_hasmi pondered if he should take the $150 at the
risk of getting less work in the future.

~~~
lessallan
I don't think our little blog will stop anyone from making infographs.

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billturner
Poor spelling doesn't help much either.

~~~
revolvingcur
I will never understand how someone can spend hours on a piece like this
without reading it once to check for basic grammatical errors.

~~~
mortice
The point of the piece doesn't seem to be to add anything of value to a
debate, rather than to grab some easy traffic and make a joke. Whether it
succeeds at the latter is up for debate, of course, but given the aims, who
cares about the grammar?

~~~
lessallan
We should certainly proof the article better, but it was an experiment. We
paid $150 for the graphic, it was done and an overseas fellow in a couple of
weeks. I sent him three emails so the overall work was about 15 minutes and
cost 150 dollars.

~~~
mortice
Fair enough - I clearly missed the point. :)

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lou1492
They are also ruining our youth! Infographs encourage our lazy society to
become even more dependent on graphical stimulation and less competent in
reading the printed word. I believe the first infographic was developed in
Nazi Germany and illustrated SS soldiers goose stepping.

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merraksh
A bad (IMHO) example of infographic:

[http://images.fastcompany.com/upload/Typefaces-of-the-
world_...](http://images.fastcompany.com/upload/Typefaces-of-the-
world_new_large.jpg)

Stylish, but hardly readable and not very informative.

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virginiadixon
WOW! I found only one error. How many were there?

